Gujarat: Campaigns halt as BJP, Cong scramble to pick the right candidates

It may be a lull before the approaching political storm in the high-stakes elections to the 14th Gujarat Vidhan Sabha in December this year.

With senior leaders of both the ruling BJP and main Opposition Congress Party going in huddles for the onerous exercise of ticket distribution to winnable candidates, in a series of meetings being held in Gandhinagar and New Delhi, election campaigning has slowed down in the state over the last couple of days.

The Election Commission had, on October 25, announced to hold polls to the 182 Assembly constituencies in Gujarat in two phases. In the first phase, votes will be polled on December 9 for 89 seats in the Saurashtra and South Gujarat regions while in the second phase, election will be held for the remaining 93 seats in Central and North Gujarat on December 14. A gazette notification for these phases will be issued on November 14 and 20, with last dates for filing of nominations being November 21 and 27, respectively. The last date for withdrawals will be November 24 and 30, respectively.

Thus, with only four days left for the first phase gazette notification, the political parties have slowed down high-pitch campaigning as its senior leaders are busy in the ticket distribution exercise. But the parties are trying to keep up indirect campaigning via their fierce social media campaign, cartoons, hoardings etc and through foot soldiers.

Both the major parties are, apparently, waiting for the other to declare its candidates first. In particular, the candidate-selection exercise in the Congress seems more complicated as it may have to accommodate conflicting interests represented by the Patidars, the OBCs, the Dalits and others. In particular, even after two ‘deadlines’ of November 3 and 7, given by Hardik Patel, the party has not been able to come out with a solution to the Patidars’ main demand of reservation and a stalemate on this issue continues.

In Gandhinagar, the BJP’s Parliamentary Board, headed by party chief Amit Shah, began the exercise at Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s residence on Friday. A final list is likely to be announced only after return of the party’s top campaigner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is going to The Philippines on Sunday for three days to participate in the 25th India-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit.

The Congress Party’s Central Election Committee, headed by party chief Sonia Gandhi, is also meeting in the national capital and is expected to announce the list of candidates for the first phase on November 15 or 16. Senior party leaders from Gujarat are already in New Delhi for the purpose.

According to sources, the BJP is likely to drop around half of its 121 sitting MLAs and nominate fresh faces in a bid to combat anti-incumbency. On the other hand, the Congress is expected to renominate all but seven of its 44 sitting MLAs.

Former CM Shankarsinh Vaghela’s Jan Vikalp Party, contesting on the “Tractor” symbol of Rajasthan’s All India Hindustan Congress, has said it would “select” candidates on the basis of online submission of applications.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is expected to continue his ‘charm offensive’ in Central Gujarat from November 11 to 13 as his party is sending campaigners like actress Nagma, Shashi Tharoor, Sam Pitroda and Jyotiraditya Scindia, among others, to different areas. The ruling BJP, too, is set to storm the saffron state with a several Union Ministers and other leaders descending on different dates in different regions.

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