AHMEDABAD: Gujarat’s countryside was completely painted in saffron as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) overwhelmingly captured all 31 district panchayats, majority of the 81 municipalities and over 200 of the 231 taluka (block) panchayats, which had gone to polls on February 28.
With the resounding victory, which came a week after the party swept all six municipal corporations, BJP extracted sweet revenge from Congress which had pocketed massive electoral gains in 2015 on the back of a violent Patidar quota stir led by Hardik Patel as well as the Dalit stir championed by Jignesh Mevani.
In 2015, BJP was decimated in 24 out of the 31 district panchayats and lost 138 out of the total 228 taluka panchayats. However, the party had kept its semi-urban base intact by winning 45 out of 57 municipalities.
Congress was shoved further towards political oblivion in state's electoral politics after failing to win a single district panchayat and severe battering in the municipalities. Effectively, India’s grand old party’s grassroots support was significantly uprooted in the saffron storm.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had stunned all by winning 27 seats in Patidar strongholds of Surat city, also made a modest entry in the rural bodies by winning 42 out of the 2097 seats it contested. AAP’s Surat show had set off a chatter that it would also make inroads in Patel community-dominated districts like Amreli and Morbi districts where the BJP had lost badly in the 2017 assembly polls. However, the speculations got a burial after Patidars strongly rooted for the BJP. In fact, in Amreli, where Congress had swept all five assembly seats in 2017, BJP won the district panchayat, all 11 taluka panchayats and the five municipalities. The humiliating loss forced resignation of Paresh Dhanani, Amreli Congress MLA and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly.
The stellar performance of the BJP has also negated its image of being an ‘city-only’ party as it garnered huge voter support in rural Gujarat too.
Moreover, the party remained unscathed from the resentment over constantly rising prices of petrol, diesel and LPG, general business gloom and anger over heavy fines for Covid-19 rules violation.
Towering tribal leader Chhotu Vasava’s 20-year-old fortress in Bharuch district panchayat completely crumbled as the pre-poll joint venture with Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) to corner Muslim and tribal votes proved to be a poor gamble. For the first time, BJP won Bharuch district panchayat with a majority. But AIMIM had a memorable debut in Godhra municipality, the ground zero of 2002 riots, where it won seven out of the eight contested seats and nine seats in Modasa civic body.
The BJP also scored several electoral firsts. For the first time ever, BJP captured the district panchayats of Gandhinagar and tribal-dominated Dang and Tapi since their inception.
The saffron party also eased through Viramgam municipality, the hometown of fiesty Patidar quota stir leader Hardik Patel, by winning 22 out of 36 municipality seats while the Congress scored a zero. In 2015, the civic poll results had gone down to wire in a close contest.
Chief minister Vijay Rupani said, "The foundation for 2022 assembly election victory has been laid today. Congress or AAP are not even close to being the opposition".