Gujarat polls 2017: No locals, this was a national leadership show of BJP & Congress

The 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls turned out to be a battle between the national leaderships of the two main political forces in the state – the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Whatever be the result, the second rung of these forces remained in the oblivion. At certain points in the run-up to the polls, it was the leaders of these parties from other states that were seen running the show, something that the local leadership was ideally meant to be doing in a state that has emerged as the trendsetter for Indian politics over the last few years.

Starting with the Congress, these elections proved to be a complete Rahul Gandhi show. At the time he began the campaign in the state he was the vice president of the party and towards the end, he had taken over the command of the grand old party.

“Win or lose, this Gujarat election saw the emergence of Rahul as a top national leader,” – is how an observer sitting way far off in Punjab put it.

Even the strongest of Rahul's critics in Gujarat had to admit that he carried out the campaign in the state as a very mature politician who had done his homework well. The strategy chalked out by him and his team ensured that the political opponents had to sweat it out, not only in particular pockets, but the entire state.

The other senior Congress leaders kept visiting the state to interact with select groups and put forward their points on contentious issues, particularly those governing the state of Indian economy. The media management was effectively carried out by Randeep Surjewala.

But what also came to the fore was the fact that with no credible local leadership, it was left to the central leadership to run the entire campaign. The top leaders in the state do not have a pan-Gujarat acceptance and are restricted to their respective pockets.

“Besides they do not carry the required political weight. Bharatsinh Solanki is seen as a leader of central Gujarat who has inherited the political largesse of his father Madhavsinh Solanki. Arjun Modhwadia is seen as a leader of the coastal belt of Saurashtra, Shaktisinh Gohil is viewed as a leader of Bhavnagar and Kutch while Siddharth Patel is again seen as a leader of central Gujarat,” pointed out a Vadodara-based political analyst.

The general perception has been that it is because of Rahul running the show that the Congress effort in the state was largely a united one. “Had Rahul not been here, nobody would have expected the local Congress leadership to work round the clock,” said Bhulabhai Patel, a resident of Rajkot.

The BJP, on the other hand, saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking complete command of the party's poll campaign. Even the party's national president Amit Shah did not make many public appearances and was confined to making strategies with the leaders taking care of the organisation in the state.

There is a point of view that Amit Shah getting too much of public attention could have spurred a counter move within the party, particularly by those in the camp led by former Chief Minister Anandiben Patel whose bitter relations with Amit Shah are well known. Hence it was Modi at the forefront.

Another aspect at display was the side-effect of Modi not having allowed a second rung of leadership to have come in the state in the 13 years that he was at the helm as the state chief minister.

Things came to a pass that even the sitting Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and his deputy Nitin Patel have had a very tough fight on their home turfs and no one is giving them the benefit of an easy win on their own seats. The remaining leaders in the state remained inconsequential.

In fact, the BJP pressed into action its entire machinery from across the country. On one side it was leaders like Smriti Irani, Arun Jaitley, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Yogi Adityanath and Shivraj Singh Chauhan who spent several days campaigning for the party here, and on the other, the hinterland was flushed with workers from various Sangh Parivar outfits.

One could come across workers of various Hindutva organisations in tribal belts and parts of Saurashtra who had come from as far as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

The second rung BJP leaders from other states had also been pressed into service for micro-management of the polls. They have been in Gujarat for around three months ensuring booth level managements.

All this goes in to show how desperate the BJP is to retain this state with a handsome margin as a substantial decline in seats here will prove to be a big embarrassment for Modi and Shah at the national level.

Ironically, it is the three youngsters who played the HAJ (Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani) factor in these polls who have emerged as a far more credible local political leadership in the state.

Although, their impact for now remained confined mainly to their respective communities of Patidars, Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and Dalits. They have been the ones who gave a real issue-based narrative to the poll campaign.

They were the ones who raised issues like employment, empowerment of the masses, education, healthcare etc. These leaders posed difficult questions to the ruling dispensation that the latter found difficult to answer. They were also able to catch the fancy of the youth.

“They have a long way to go if they continue with their brand of politics which is more rooted on the ground. It was apparent right from the beginning that the political parties could not ignore them. They will have an impact on the poll outcome this time,” claimed a local media professional in Surat.