Guj who’s who among 977 whose fate to be sealed today

The first phase of the Gujarat Assembly polls for 89 out of 182 constituencies across Saurashtra-Kutch and South Gujarat regions will be held on Saturday.

Fate of 977 candidates, including Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, State BJP chief Jitu Vaghani, senior Congress leaders Shaktisinh Gohil, Arjun Modhvadia and  Paresh Dhanani, to name a few, will be sealed with around 2.12 crore voters expected to exercise their franchise.

Both the BJP and the Congress carried out intense campaigning in the region —fifty per cent seats of which are Patidar-dominated — which often saw sharp exchanges of diatribes.

The BJP is in power in the State since 1995 and despite talks of anti-incumbency, BJP leaders are confident to make history by winning 150-plus seats in the State. To achieve this magic number, the saffron party requires to win maximum numbers of seats from Saurashtra-Kutch region        whereas the Congress is also trying hard to make a major dent in BJP’s prospects against the backdrop of pro-quota Patidar agitation led by Hardik Patel.

From the beginning the region witnessed highly electrified campaigning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP’s national president Amit Shah and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani being the star campaigners of the BJP. Central Ministers, including Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Smriti Irani, Dhrmendra Pradhan and others too campaigned.

Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States, including Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, too toured the State.

For Opposition Congress, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi led the campaign. Senior Congress leaders Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Randeep Surjewala and Manish Tiwari, too flew down to Gujarat to seek votes for the party’s candidates.

Of the four regions in the poll-bound State, Saurashtra-Kutch sends largest number of 54 MLAs to the Assembly. Geographically, the region forms two-thirds of Gujarat’s total area. Just like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, deep-rooted caste system exists here. The intensity of the ongoing pro-quota Patidar agitation here is much higher than in the other three regions —  north, central and south Gujarat.

Under Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister, the BJP won three previous Assembly polls and in the process transformed Saurashtra-Kutch region. Also,  the BJP won around 40 seats from here and kept the Congress out of power.

In the fag end of the campaigning, the BJP tried to capitalise on Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s “neech” comment against the Prime Minister. The PM went in overdrive to highlight how Congress leaders have repeatedly abused him. The party is confident that Aiyar’s ‘loose tongue’ has given them the much-needed weapon that would see a groundswell of support for the BJP candidates.

Attacking Aiyar at poll rallies in Bhabhar in Banaskantha district, Modi said, “Shriman Mani Shankar Aiyar...You know what he did?” “He gave this gaali (abuse) to me or you? Did he abuse me or Gujarat? Did he abuse the cultured society of India or me? Let us not talk about that abuse, as people of Gujarat will look into it and give a reply and they (Congress) will know the result on December 18.”

On December 14, remaining 93 seats across North and Central Gujarat will go to polls. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 18.