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Gujarat Elections: Dissidents become a headache for Congress and BJP

With Assembly Elections in Gujarat getting nearer, the internal problems and infighting within major political parties are coming to the…

Gujarat Elections: Dissidents become a headache for Congress and BJP

With Assembly Elections in Gujarat getting nearer, the internal problems and infighting within major political parties are coming to the fore and being widely displayed in front of the media, thus harming party prospects.

The issue of rebels going against the party directives especially now that the candidate lists are out is increasing by each passing day for both the Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). For the BJP a major problem has arisen in Surat, a constituency the party already is on shaky grounds. At least three BJP leaders from Surat BJP have filed nominations as independent candidates after being denied a ticket by the party.

One of the rebel leaders, former municipal councilor Bhimji Patel alleges that the Party has sold the ticket to an incompetent candidate for crores of rupees. A jittered Bhimji has filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Karanj and another BJP rebel Ajay Choudhary, who hails from Bihar filed his nomination from Choryasi.

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Another leader Kunwarji Halpati, chairman of Halpati Gram Gruh Nirman Board, has resigned from the BJP and filed his nomination as an Independent from two seats of Mandvi and Mangrol respectively. Halpati previously sought a BJP ticket to contest from Mandvi but the party nominated Praveen Chaudhary from the constituency as he is from Vasava community. Halpati accused the BJP of giving the ticket to a candidate to appease a particular community meanwhile it accuses Congress of playing appeasement politics. He further said, that there are more than 10 lakh voters of Halpati community but the party has totally ignored their wishes.

Things are not going any smooth in the Congress Party as well and the disgruntled party workers continued their protests against the party in Ahmedabad over the distribution of urban seats for the upcoming elections and making their cases against their decisions in front the High Command in Delhi as well.

A delegation of Congress leaders made a presentation before the high command in Delhi showing their unease over candidates like Sabir Kablivala who lost the 2012 elections from Jamalpur Khadia constituency and yet has been accommodated by the party. According to these leaders, the locals are also against Kablivala’s candidature and he should be removed and replaced by someone more widely acceptable.

There is also dissent in local Congress members against the candidate nominated from Bapunagar seat, Himmatsinh Patel who is a former leader of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), has lost in two assembly elections and a parliamentary election. Though there was a clear message from the high command that candidates who lost more than twice won’t be preferred for a ticket but Himmatsinh was still accommodated without any concrete reason.

The rebels are protesting in their own ways and a lot them are now going to be fighting their own party candidates across assembly seats. What would be interesting to see is whether parties are able to soothen the rebel aspirations. Finding a balance is something both the Congress and the BJP need to focus on if they want to have a breakthrough in their electoral strategies.

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