Congress faces burden of alliances, rebels & resurgent BJP in last phase of Gujarat polls

NEW DELHI: The burden of alliances with different political parties, bitter in-fighting and stubborn rebels on at least a dozen seats and a resurgent BJP eyeing its tribal vote bank — these are some of the major issues that Congress is grappling with on 93 assembly constituencies in Gujarat that go to polls on Thursday. While Congress seemed confident in the first phase of polling, it isn’t the case in the second.

TROUBLE WITHIN
North Gujarat, which comprises 32 seats, holds the key to the second leg of polling. Congress had an edge over BJP in 2012 elections, winning 17 of the 32 seats but this time there are rumblings within the party. There are at least 16 rebels in 13 constituencies who are fighting against the party’s official candidate.

The toughest challenge comes from Banaskantha district where Congress is facing rebels in five of the nine seats: these include Tharad, Vadgam, Deesa, Deodar, Kankrej constituencies. In many seats, the party had won on a waferthin margin of less than 1,000 votes.

ALLIANCE DHARMA
There’s a feeling within Congress that the party was not good at the bargaining table and paid a heavy price to stitch up a multi-party rainbow alliance, and it could cost Congress its seat tally. Chottubhai Vasava’s Bharatiya Tribal Party has been given seven seats, leading to a question about the need to give JDU breakaway faction these many seats.

“We should have been better at bargaining. Vasava has influence, but not beyond his own turf. There was no need to part with seven seats,” said a leader involved in the talks. Vadgam, for instance, has been a Congress citadel but the party is supporting activist-turned-politician Jignesh Mevani, who is fighting as an independent. In the process, it has fuelled a rebellion within the organisation and Mevani is on a weak wicket in the constituency. There are two Congress rebels fighting against Mevani in Vadgam.


MAKING A DENT
One of the biggest factors before the Congress is how it would perform on 27 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, majority of which vote on Thursday in Panchmahal, Chotta Udaipur and Dahod districts. The uncertainty is based on the new strategy that BJP has employed through VHP and RSS over the past two years in tribal belt in eastern part of the state. There has been a sharp increase in the number of Ekal Vidyalayas being run by VHP.

These schools provide quality education, boarding, uniforms and food to tribal children and fill the gap which the state has not been able to. BJP has also employed a massive tribal outreach through Sangh pracharaks who are assigned specific blocks and given the task to understand the grassroots problems of the tribals.

At present, Congress holds 16 of the 27 reserved constituency and is desperately trying to hold on to its vote share of 45%. While BJP is banking on its outreach, Congress has been raking the BJP government’s “poor track record” in giving land titles to tribals under Forest Rights Act.