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Next - Narendra Modi - Challenges ahead
The
results of Gujarat Election clearly indicated that Narendra Modi has not only
the leadership qualities and capability but he is a shrewd Strategist far more
competent than anyone in the political structure of India in current years.
There were two major parties
contesting this election - Congress and the ruling BJP. There was however a
third party - |Gujarat Parivartan Party, which was recently formed by Keshubhai
Patel, who quit BJP due to differences with Narendra Modi.
Post-independence history of Gujarat
- In 1947, the new Indian government grouped the former princely states of
Gujarat into three larger units; Saurashtra, Kutch, and Bombay state, which
included the former British districts of Bombay Presidency together with most
of Baroda state and the other former princely states of eastern Gujarat. In
1956, Bombay state was enlarged to include Kutch, Saurashtra, and parts of
Hyderabad state and Madhya Pradesh in central India. The new state had a mostly
Gujarati-speaking north and a Marathi-speaking south. Agitation by Marathi
nationalists for their own state led to the split of Bombay state on linguistic
lines; on 1 May 1960, it became the new states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. The
first capital of Gujarat was Ahmedabad; which was moved to Gandhinagar in 1970.
Congress continued to govern Gujarat
after the state's creation in 1960. During and after India's State of Emergency
of 1975-1977, public support for the Congress Party eroded, but it continued to
hold government until 1995. In the 1995 Assembly Polls, the Congress lost to
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Keshubhai Patel came to power. His
Government lasted only two years. The fall of that government was provoked by a
split in the BJP led by Shankersinh Vaghela and has won most of the subsequent
polls. In 2001, following the loss of two assembly seats in by-elections,
Keshubhai Patel resigned and yielded power to Narendra Modi. The BJP retained a
majority in the 2002 election, and Narendra Modi has since served as Chief
Minister of the state. On 1 June 2007, Narendra Modi became the longest serving
Chief Minister of Gujarat. The BJP retained a majority once again in 2007 and
Narendra Modi turned the ruler of the State, once again.
2012
- Party Scenario and manifesto
BJP - The ruling party had a
clear edge in its leader - Shri Narendra Modi whose clean corrupt free image
and determination to development and progress of Gujarat was at the heart of
the people. BJP called its manifesto as "Sankalp Patra" - A
commitment to act.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Images/Popup/2012/12/Manifesto-Summary-Eng.pdf
Congress - There was an atmosphere
of accepted defeat with no clear announcement of who the leader should be.
Moreover rather than campaigning alongside its manifesto ( http://www.gujaratcongress.org/english/wp-content/uploads/manifesto/latest_manifesto.pdf
) it decided to target the ruling party and Narendra Modi stating that
there was no development and no progress. This back fired as people of Gujarat
had witnessed the progress.
GPP - there was no clear cut agenda
or manifesto. This was a party with of 82 year old Keshubhai Patel and
candidates who could not get the tickets from BJP. However Keshubhai is a much
respected and very prominent person in Saurashtra region.
Congress had also a game plan in
which they were hoping to reap the fruits of this division in BJP and BJP
votes. However people of Gujarat decided to cast their votes not on caste or
religion and went in favour of the good governance and development model of
Narendra Modi.
The failure of Congress is also
attributed to poor leadership and corruption charges faced by them on national
front. The campaign was outsourced to a company which created a series of
blunders like publishing a photograph of Sri Lankan refugee camp showing that
as of a malnutrition child and woman in Gujarat.
Challenges
faced by BJP -
Though BJP had a clear edge and a
winning manifesto along with a proven model of Governance, development and
progress, they had a stiff challenge this time from Main stream Media. For
reasons unknown, it is widely seen in the circles that main news channels like
NDTV, Timesnow, Hindustan Times etc. were clearly biased towards Congress and
were hitting on every count against Narendra Modi. It must be noted here that
their attack was never on BJP but Narendra Modi. Every debate was carefully
planned with a panel of 3 V/s 1 or 5 V/s2. Main stream media was looking towards this
election as a battle ground for Narendra Modi to become the PM of India. On most
of their debates the question was in line towards nationalist leadership goal
of Narendra Modi.
It was also noted during this
election that none of the parties had raised any issues of 2002 post Godhara
riots and tried to re-surface the scars left by those riots. However NDTV
decided to broadcast and highlight the riots and did show the lack of
development in Muslim areas and times declared that muslins in Gujarat were
living in ghettos. This move of NDTV to resurface the old scars and divide the
country on religion looks to be very suspicious.
Opinion
Polls -
Most
of the opinion polls had forecasted a clear win for BJP ranging from 110 -130.
Results:
| Gujarat Result Status | |||
Status Known For 182 out of 182 Constituencies
| |||
| Party | Won | Leading | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bharatiya Janata Party | 115 | 0 | 115 |
| Indian National Congress | 61 | 0 | 61 |
| Nationalist Congress Party | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Janata Dal (United) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Others | 3 | 0 | 3 |
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Next - Narendra Modi - Challenges ahead
