Gujarat Polls | BJP On Course To End Its 25 Years Of Reign: AAP CM Face Isudan Gadhvi
THE Aam Aadmi Party’s Chief Minister face for Gujarat, Isudan Gadhvi on Saturday said that the people of Gujarat are fed up with the state leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress. He also claimed that his party is on course to end its uninterrupted reign of nearly 25 years, reported the news agency PTI.
“Modi is prime minister and he will remain in power at the Centre till 2024. The assembly polls are for electing the state government. The people of Gujarat are fed up with state leaders of the BJP and the Congress. There is no mass leader among them while I am drawing support in every part of the state,” he was quoted as saying during an interview with PTI.
While several poll watchers are of the belief that the journalist-turned-politician has been caught in a tough fight in Khambhalia and social equations are also not very favourable to him, he said that the AAP’s poll entry has meant that conventional calculations will not work in either his constituency or in Gujarat.
However, his party has also been described his party as a “general without soldiers”, a line that suggests that AAP may lack the ground network to match the well-entrenched poll machinery of its rivals, especially the BJP, despite having a visible leadership.
Gadhvi, on the other hand, dismissed such suggestions and cited figures to back his claim of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerging as a credible challenger to the BJP in the state.
He also claimed that his party has established its committees of 11-15 persons in each of the nearly 52,000 booths in the state and over 50 lakh voters have physically collected “guarantees” (manifesto) his party has promised to deliver if elected to power.
“We do not believe in the old pattern of politics practiced by the BJP and the Congress in which panchayat members and local caste leaders were co-opted by them during the polls to collect votes. Ground workers are with us and so are people. It will be reflected in the poll results on December 8,” he said.
Gadhvi also claimed that his party is ahead of the BJP while the Congress is far behind in terms of the current popular vote share.
Besides free electricity, the party has also promised to boost education and health sectors and provide nearly two lakh government jobs, similarly as its leader Arvind Kejriwal has “done” in Delhi.
He also alleged that the BJP ran a “corrupt” government in Gujarat and that Congress has failed in its role as an opposition by not raising the issues of people effectively.
Gadhvi’s assembly seat Khambhalia falls in the Saurashtra region, which will go to polls in the first phase on December 1 along with south Gujarat and Kutch.
The rest of the parts of Gujarat will vote on December 5 and counting will take place on December 8.
(With inputs from the agency)
