Expects votes from people who have lost jobs in small-scale units, like the diamond industry.
The seven diamond districts of Gujarat are going to see a tough fight in the coming elections as Congress and smaller opposition parties are hitching their campaign on the issue of job losses in these districts, with Congress expecting gains in Saurashtra and northern Gujarat.
The Congress, which has 12 Lok Sabha seats, is hoping to improve its tally to anywhere between 14 and 17 seats, and to attract the votes of the two million people, who they say have lost jobs in small-scale units, including the diamond industry in Gujarat.
The seven diamond districts of Amreli, Valsad, Bhavnagar, Naushari, Palanpur, Surat and Ahmedabad and their corresponding Lok Sabha constituencies of Amreli, Bhavnagar, Surat, Valsad, Bardoli and West and East Ahmedabad are swaying the campaign to a great extent as far as Congress is concerned.
Already of the 12 sitting MPs the party has withheld nominations of four, and according to sources, one of the four —Amreli — may now go to a woman representative of the diamond industry itself, party sources in the state said.
Two others may be changed to give way to women and youth. The 75-year-old MP of Banaskantha Harisinghji Chavda may be replaced by someone younger while Jamnagar’s MP Vikrambhai Arjanbhai Madam is likely to be replaced by a kinswoman, sources said.
Congress’ confidence is inspired by its score in the previous Lok Sabha elections where it got 12 of the 26 seats. The 13th seat was lost by a mere 300 odd votes. This was when Narendra Modi was boasting that Congress would get zero seats, points out Sabarkantha MP Madhusudan Mistry.
“The people may want BJP when it comes to the local government but would want the Congress to continue its work at the Centre,” he says.
Mistry says he expects the tally to touch 16 or even 17 this time.
He said that the job losses in the diamond districts and other small-scale industry units would be one of the main factors which voters would hold against the BJP government.
The Narendra Modi government is collecting crores as taxes but is yet to do anything for the millions of workers who have lost jobs in various industries, says Mistry.
The next big issue that Congress is banking on is related to farmers and the shortage of electricity to run tube wells for irrigation.
Whether the electorate would agree with this version of split responsibility in the face of job losses, would be revealed only when the votes are cast.
