Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls: BJP has numbers to re-elect only two ministers

GANDHINAGAR: The BJP will have to make way for at least two Congress candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls next month, following the changed arithmetic after the assembly election last year, as four seats fall vacant in the upper house.
Terms of four BJP candidates – Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, minister of state for agriculture Parshottam Rupala, minister of state for chemicals Mansukh Mandaviya and Shankar Vegad – are getting over in March.

While it is expected that the three ministers will be selected, with one shifted out of the state by the BJP, the Congress has been mulling over sending state president Bharatsinh Solanki and another senior leader from outside Gujarat to the upper house, people aware of the matter said.

They said that the decision of the Congress is likely to be influenced by the generational transition in the party, with Rahul Gandhi taking over as president, as well as its performance in the 2017 assembly polls in the state, which according to some party members could have thrown up “better results” but for some internal “miscalculations”.

“The decision of both the parties is keenly awaited as both of them are drawing their strength from Gujarat at the moment in a big way and their moves in the state are likely to be indicative of the trajectory they assume ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls,” said one of the persons cited earlier, who did not wish to be identified.

Gandhi’s temple-hopping and public outreach coupled with professional election management in Gujarat, which delivered more seats for the party than in any other election in the past two decades, is expected to be taken forward in upcoming elections in other states as well, another person said.

While the local leadership did precious little to tap into the public discontent, bringing in an outsider for the Rajya Sabha would dash the aspirations of the local “heavyweights”, thereby raising the possibility of internal discontent.

On the other hand, the BJP is looking at repairing the bridge with its support base, which seems to have suffered damages in the wake of caste agitations and farmer unrest.

With the Patidar agitation against the government still simmering, the BJP is less than likely to drop either of the Patidar ministers, Rupala or Mandaviya, leaving the possibility of shifting finance minister Jaitley to some other state. However, a BJP member indicated the possibility of retaining either Rupala or Mandaviya from Gujarat.