2019 Lok Sabha elections have concluded and TsuNaMo has swept over the country and Gujarat has given all 26 seats to their sons. The state did not let down the sons Prime Minister Modi and BJP President and now Gujarat MP Amit Shah.
When it comes to Gujarat things are different compared to other Hindi heartland states. It is Narendra Modi’s janmabhumi and karmabhumi. It’s here that he began his successful journey as an able administrator and made Gujarat a truly global state.
Gujarat state continues to repose its faith in BJP, Congress heavyweights lose
Congress party’s dream to revive its performance in Gujarat especially after seeing a bit of improvement in Gujarat state election 2017 didn’t materialise. It lost all 26 seats and failed to translate its state election performance into 2019 Lok Sabha votes for many reasons.
To begin with, the total voting turnaround for the state locked at 64.11%. Congress party’s heavy-weights, Paresh Dhanani from Amreli lost to BJP’s Naranbhai kachhadia in Amreli, Bharat Sinh Solanki former state party president from Anand lost to BJP’s Mitesh Patel.
Miffed by the poor performance state party president Amit Chavda, Hardik Patel, Siddharth Patel and Arjun Modhawadiya even contemplated of challenging Anand constituency’s results. However, if there’s anything that Congress party should be challenging right now is party’s way of working.
Another seat that held people’s interest from the start was Gandhinagar seat. After L K Advani announced not to contest, Amit Shah decided to contest from Gandhinagar. It was a landslide victory for him with more than 4.5 lakhs votes in Gandhinagar. In Rajkot BJP candidate Mohan Kundariya won with more than 3.5 lakhs vote against Congress’s Lalit Kagathara. BJP’s Darshana Vikram Jardosh from Surat, Rathva Gitaben Vajesingbhai from Chhota Udaipur, Poonamben Hematbhai Maadam from Jamnagar, Hasmukhbhai Patel from Ahmedabad East, Dr. Kirit Solanki from Ahmedabad West, Ranjan Bhatt from Vadodara all recorded a landslide victory.
Congress party’s myopic views on the state
Gujarat state assembly election 2017 was different from other state elections. It was for the first time in last fifteen years that BJP was fighting state election without Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister.
There was a rise of the local youth politicians in Jignesh Mevani, Alpesh Thakore (who later contested from Congress ticket) and Patidar leader Hardik Patel (who recently joined Congress. The BJP government in the state was facing over two decades of anti-incumbency where an entire generation had never seen a non-BJP government in the state.
The state’s entrepreneurial spirit was a faced with a change of acceptance with GST and demonetisation. It wasn’t anti-incumbency of over 20 years that was a cause of worry for BJP but the absence of an able administrator like Narendra Modi. These factors may have helped congress party but to interpret this as the state is warming up to Congress is debatable. The friction in congress party’s state leadership is known to all. Their leadership in the state was best displayed in their rifts and personal interest. Congress party in Gujarat from last fifteen years has even failed to come up as a strong opposition party.
National interest over state issues
Gujarat is a peace-loving state known for its inimitable entrepreneurial spirit. At all given times it wants peace and harmony in the state to prevail. Security and stability comes first and when it comes to national security state’s choice remains unquestionable.
They trust Narendra Modi that he will protect people’s interest and guard the nation. When Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camps was destroyed people cheered for him. People chose to go with the national interest over the issues picked up during state election also because the intent of the local leaders was now known.
People could see through the young faces interest and what they were trying to achieve by joining hands with congress. It comes as no surprise that most patidars in the state care zilch about reservation and most of them have given up on Hardik Patel, especially after he joined Congress. People of the state are disenchanted with local young leaders after their intent came out clear.
It is also interesting to note how Congress party’s both campaigns, Vikas gando thayo che – vikas has gone mad (used in state assembly elections) and Chowkidar chor hai (Lok Sabha elections) gave BJP their two campaigns that echoed the pride of Gujarat (Hun Chu Vikas) and (Mein bhi Chowkidar Hoon).
To sum up, the people of the state have reposed their faith in BJP and national interest and security remains the top priority for the people of Gujarat. And, when it comes to protecting their interest who better than Narendra Modi, who they know, love and believe in.
