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With as many as five sitting Congress MLAs in the Gujarat assembly quitting the party in past 10 days, to join BJP ahead of Lok Sabha polls, it has become evident that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and his party colleagues are applying all the tricks in the book to break down the Congress morale in the state. Not only that, Modi and his team has been successful in luring Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP), a party formed by fraction of BJP detractors to merge with the saffron party.
GPP president Gordhan Zadafia on Monday announced merger of his party with BJP in large interest of the nation and setting aside his personal differences with Modi. Zadafia was minister of state for home in Modi administration during the 2002 post-Godhra riots. He was replaced by Amit Shah after the December 2002 assembly elections.
This is being viewed as a strategic plan of the BJP to target the weak links in the Congress to divide votes in some seats where the party felt it was lagging behind. Merger with GPP is being seen as a compromise between Modi and former BJP members who had cut ties with their mother organisation following differences with the prime minister nominee.
For the Congress it has been a downward journey with as many as seven MLA's deserting the party for BJP in last one year. The strength of Congress party in Gujarat assembly has reached the 2002 level at 51 seats. The lone Congress MLA from Kutch Chhabil Patel (Abdasa assembly constituency) quit the party on Monday to join the BJP and extended his full support for BJP's prime ministerial candidate. Patel was not alone. An influential tribal leader Prabhu Vasava, Congress legislator from Mandvi reserved seat in Surat, also submitted his resignation from the party and the state assembly to join the BJP in support of Modi for PM.
Last week seasoned Congress MLAs Jasa Barad (Somnath), Bavku Ugadh (Lathi) and Rajendra Chavda (Himmatnagar) had quit the party to joint he BJP. In March last year, senior Congress leader Vitthal Radadiya, very influential among the Levua Patels of Saurashtra region in the state, had joined the BJP along with his son Jayesh Radadiya. The father-son duo later contested bye-elections on BJP ticket from Porbandar Lok Sabha and Jetpur Assembly seats respectively and won in June last year. This was a strategic move by Modi and his team to bring along hundreds of supporters from the Levua Patel community to the BJP.
Political observers believe that this is a calculated move Modi to sweep all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat. "Congress MLA joining BJP and GPP's merger with BJP is part of a very well thought plan by Modi. With sitting MLAs joining them BJP will also have advantage of their supporter during the general elections," said political analyst Vidyut Joshi. He added that the trend of Congress MLAs joining BJP is also because they might have realised that their party is not going to fare well during the forthcoming polls.
However, Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhwadia claimed that the MLAs have joined BJP only for financial gains. "The BJP thinks that they would gain in the Lok Sabha elections by picking up Congress MLA. But movement of few MLAs is not going to affect the party in anyway," Modhwadia said. As such all those who have joined are former members of the BJP who had joined Congress with Shankarsinh Vaghela, he added.
"The morale within the party is high. These recent incidents are not going to affect it," Modhwadia said putting up a brave face. Another senior Congerss leader commented that this was the garbage in the party which has been cleaned.
Political observer Hemant Shah was of the opinion that such move by the BJP was not going to yield any benefits. "Such type of poaching is quite routine before the elections, be it assembly or Lok Sabha polls. I do not seen much change in voting patter of people in the region where the Congress MLA has joined BJP. This is because in our country people vote in favour of party rather than an individual. Hence I do not see BJP gaining vote share with Congress MLA's joining it," Shah explained.
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