New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Celebration’s (AAP) presence in Gujarat polls gave the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) a bonus in 33 seats, which ended up with an all-time excessive tally of 156 within the 182-member meeting.
The votes secured by the AAP and Congress candidates collectively have been greater than what the BJP candidates secured on every of those 33 seats, an evaluation of election outcomes by ThePrint reveals.
Of those 33, 17 have been within the state’s Saurashtra area, the place the Congress had performed very effectively in the course of the 2017 meeting elections, profitable 28 of 48 seats. The get together’s tally in Saurashtra got here all the way down to three this time. One other 13 of those seats have been within the tribal area of Gujarat, historically a Congress stronghold.
These figures appear to validate senior Congress chief Pawan Khera’s argument that the “AAP ate into the Congress’ area” in Gujarat. The AAP’s absence would have helped the Congress — which received in 17 seats — safe 33 extra seats and may need introduced the BJP’s tally all the way down to 123 within the meeting.
The AAP may, nevertheless, additionally declare that if the Congress was not within the fray, it might have gotten 12 seats extra (together with seven in Saurashtra area), by which the AAP got here second and the Congress third.
General, the AAP secured 5 seats within the 182-member meeting and was a runner-up in 35 others. The Congress got here second in 119.
Of the AAP’s 5 seats, 4 have been in Saurashtra area. It defeated the Congress in Jamjodhpur and Visavadar and the BJP in Botad and Gariadhar. The AAP secured its fifth seat in Dediapada, a tribal dominated seat held by the Bharatiya Tribal Celebration earlier.
Calling AAP a ‘de-ideologised’ get together, Congress chief Pawan Khera instructed ThePrint, “This election is an eye fixed opener for us. This brings us perception into the voter’s thoughts. We wish to analyse what voters need. Do they need a transactional relationship with the get together in energy? AAP fights elections over freebies, not points or ideology.”
“(Arvind) Kejriwal calls himself Modi’s Challenger, however finally ends up consuming into the Congress’ area. I feel he doesn’t know which vote he’s concentrating on. He performed delicate Hindutva politics right here, saved chanting Laxmi and Ganesh, didn’t communicate a phrase over the Bilkis Bano challenge,” added Khera.
Political observers say the AAP performed the function of ‘vote-cutter’.
“Other than profitable 5 seats, AAP has performed an important function in damaging the Congress. As an alternative of turning into a nationwide challenger to (Narendra) Modi, it has truly dented the Congress vote financial institution in a large method. Since a really minor function was performed by the AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) or different Independents in getting a very good chunk of votes, it was AAP that ensured a humiliating defeat for Congress,” stated Hari Desai, a Gujarat-based political analyst.
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AAP’s tryst with Patidars
The AAP had projected itself as a serious contender for the influential Patidar vote financial institution after it received 27 seats within the Surat Municipal Company (SMC) election in February 2021. It got here a few months after the AAP had appointed Gopal Italia, a Patidar chief, because the convenor of the get together’s Gujarat unit. The Congress had drawn a clean in all 120 wards of the SMC, a Patidar bastion, within the 2021 election.
Within the meeting elections, the AAP couldn’t win a single seat in Surat that elects 16 MLAs. The AAP got here second in 9 of those seats, and the Congress in seven.
This time in Surat, whereas BJP has swept all 16 seats, in Mandvi, which was beforehand held by Congress, AAP bagged 49,108 votes. The margin of win for BJP’s Kunvarjibhai Halpati over Congress’ Anandbhai Chaudhari in Mandvi was 18,109. Equally, in Mahuva, the BJP candidate defeated the Congress candidate by 18.54 share factors of vote share, whereas AAP candidate’s vote share was over 20 per cent.
Within the Patidar-dominated Saurashtra area, the AAP did make its presence felt, profitable 4 of the area’s 48 seats — wresting all of them from the BJP, which received 38 — and got here second on 14 seats. The Congress, which had received 28 seats in Saurashtra in 2017, may safe solely three this election and was runner up in 26.
Saurashtra is the most important area in Gujarat, sending 48 MLAs to the meeting. The area alone covers 11 districts — Surendranagar, Morbi, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar and Botad.
AAP spokesperson Nitin Barot instructed ThePrint, “We had nothing. No matter we’re getting now’s revenue for us. Not simply in Saurashtra, our vote share is growing in the entire of Gujarat. It’s sure that the AAP is turning into a nationwide get together. That is closing. Kisan Andolan in Saurashtra helps us and supporting us. Berozgar Andolan can be serving to us.”
In 2017, the Congress had bagged 15 out of 27 reserved seats of tribals, and the BJP had received 9. Within the 2022 election, the AAP received within the Dediapada seat and got here second in 9.
The AAP’s presence within the electoral fray spoiled the Congress’ probability in 13 seats within the tribal belt the place mixed votes of the 2 events on every seat have been greater than these of the BJP. The Congress had received 9 of those 13 seats in 2017, exhibiting the extent of injury the AAP triggered to the principal opposition get together within the tribal area.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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