‘Gujarat Panchayat poll result a stamp of approval for Centre’s farm reform laws’

Union Minister Prakash Javdekar on Wednesday described the BJP’s unprecedented sweep in the Gujarat urban body elections as a stamp of approval for the three farm laws and agriculture reforms initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The BJP won in all the 31 Zila Panchayats, wresting the Congress’s rural bastions. This is a complete reversal of the 2015 local body elections, when Congress had emerged victorious in 22 Zila Panchayats while the BJP had bagged only ten. Of the 231 Taluka Panchayats, the BJP won a clear majority in a staggering 196. Among 81 municipalities, 75 went to the BJP’s kitty.

Negative campaign

The Congress was not able to even open its account in 16 Taluka Panchayats, 18 municipalities and one Zila Panchayat.

Notably, in the 2017 Assembly elections in Gujarat, the Congress had won 77 of the 182 seats and increased its vote share to 41.4 per cent as compared to the 49 per cent vote and 99 seats for the BJP largely owing to the farm distress especially in the Saurashtra region.

The gains, however, quickly reversed in the Prime Minister’s home state with the Congress losing a spate of by-elections and was swept out in the general elections subsequently.

Javdekar attributed the Congress’s decline in rural Gujarat as a defeat for its “negative campaign” and support for the PM’s Agriculture reforms.

People’s faith in reforms

“These results show that the country is charting new course of development under PM Modi’s leadership. It is significant that these elections, besides other elections such as Bihar Assembly elections and local body polls in other states, were held after the passage of farm laws in Parliament. This proves that the people of Gujarat have total faith in the path of reforms and development adopted by PM Modi. It is a defeat for the Congress’s negative politics,” said Javdekar.