With campaigning for Gujarat Assembly elections entering its final day, poll fever is getting shriller and acrimonious in the state. After 49 days of intense campaigning, where leaders from the BJP and the Congress descended on the state, the poll rhetoric in Gujarat has gone from bad to worse (which is the case during most elections in India).
While the initial poll speeches revolved around issues like development, uplifting backward castes, pushing for better infrastructure in the state and criticising the government’s policies, the rhetoric has come down to vicious personal attacks and moved away from issues which matter. However, that shouldn’t surprise anyone as that is the tradition with all elections in India.
GUJARAT ELECTION RESULT
ELECTION RESULT
GUJARAT ELECTION RESULT 2017
ELECTION RESULT LIVE
Since 2015, elections in India have presumed newfound importance because of two reasons. First of all, BJP’s fortunes have been shining ever since 2014 General Elections. In the five-state election in 2016, BJP’s extraordinary performance fostered their aspiration for what the party leadership had labelled Congress-mukt Bharat. Second of all, Congress was (is) facing its worst electoral phase since its conception. Rout after rout coupled with weak higher leadership was hurting the party more than ever.
Fever pitch campaigning ahead of Gujarat polls by both the parties brings back memories of Uttar Pradesh elections which was the last major litmus test for the BJP. In an unprecedented victory, the party shot to power in the state after 14 years — the BJP won a two-thirds majority in Uttar Pradesh — 325 seats with an 81 percent strike rate and 41.5 percent vote share. Majority of the opinion polls predicted a hung Assembly in the state. Congress, which had allied with the Samajwadi Party, which together could bag only 55 seats in the state Assembly in March this year.
Gujarat, for different reasons, is as important than Uttar Pradesh. Historically a trade state, Gujarat is Modi’s pride. Losing Gujarat, where the BJP has been ruling for the past 22 years, will be a terrible fall of face for Gujarat and even though elections in Gujarat are being fought on different issues than they were fought in Uttar Pradesh, there are several parallels which can be drawn between the two polls and the parties’ rhetoric in the run-up to the elections: