By-polls: Gujarat CM on whirlwind campaign trail

Ahmedabad: To ensure victory in the forthcoming by-polls in nine assembly and one Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, Chief Minister Anandi Patel and other BJP leaders have begun full fledged campaign across the state.  

Patel today addressed a public meeting at Talaja town of Bhavnagar district in support of the BJP candidate from the Talaja assembly seat.

This rally was followed by a similar rally, which she addressed in Khambhalia town of Jamnagar yesterday, a BJP press release said.

“She reached Talaja after giving her guidance to party workers of Matar (Kheda) and Anand Assembly seat through “audio bridge” technology from Gandhinagar.  

“After Talaja, she went to Vadodara to attend Ganesh Utsav in Gorva, Harni, Fatehpura, Nyay Mandir, Manjalpur and Mandvi areas of city” Gujarat BJP's media convener Harshad Patel said here today.

While addressing the rally in Talaja, Patel claimed that the results of this by-poll would prove crucial for the forthcoming assembly elections in other states ruled by the Congress, a Gujarat BJP press release said quoting Patel.  

“Results of this by-poll will leave a definitive effect on forthcoming assembly elections in Congress-ruled states like Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir.

BJP's victory in Gujarat by-polls will boost morale of party workers of these states and ensure victory for BJP in those states too,” Patel said.

According to Patel, it is necessary to have a larger mandate to realise the promises made by the BJP during Lok Sabha polls. Patel asked the people to help BJP to get a majority in the Rajya Sabha too.

“People of India gave a thumping majority to the BJP in the Lok Sabha and made Narendra Modi their leader but but to get a majority in the Rajya Sabha, it is necessary for the BJP to win these bye-polls as well as assembly elections in other states.

If we have majority in both the houses, we can pass several pro-people bills easily,” Patel said.

By-polls in nine assembly and one Lok Sabha seat is scheduled for September 13. Assembly seats where bypolls will be held are Anand, Limkheda (Dahod), Deesa (Banaskantha), Matar (Kheda), Maninagar (Ahmedabad), Talaja (Bhavnagar), Tankara (Rajkot), Khambhalia (Jamnagar) and Mangrol (Junagadh).

The Vadodara Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to retain Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. As a sitting MLA, he also vacated Maninagar Assembly seat.

Anandi Patel is scheduled to address a public rally tomorrow in Paddhari, which falls under the Tankara assembly seat. Meanwhile, other senior BJP leaders are also scheduled to attend rallies in other parts of state.  

“Tomorrow, our national vice president Purushottam Rupala will be at Deesa, where he will address two rallies.  

Similarly, state BJP in-charge Om Mathur, along with state general secretary Bhikhu Dalsania will address rallies in different parts of Khambhalia, Tankara, Mangrol, Talaja and Maninagar,” Patel said.

Meanwhile, the Congress has adopted a different strategy of not sending their senior leaders to each and every seat for campaigning.

“Each seat is assigned to one senior leader, who is supposed to focus purely on that seat. For example, Shankersinh Vaghela has been assigned the Matar seat while Bharatsinh Solanki is in-charge of the Anand seat.

They will stick to their seats and help Congress candidates canvas,” Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

While the BJP is banking on large public rallies, Congress has decided to stay low profile.  “Apart from Maninagar, Vadodara and Anand, all other seats have a large rural population.

Instead of addressing rallies, our leaders are meeting people through door-to-door campaigns to make them understand the failures of the BJP-led government. We find this strategy more effective,” Doshi said.