Gujarat : The first phase of voting in 89 seats in Gujarat across Kutch, South and Saurashtra regions ended on December 1, Thursday.Focus now shifts to the second election phase for 93 seats to be held on December 5, Monday.
The D-Day will be December 8 -when votes will be counted along with another BJP-ruled state of Himachal Pradesh.
Bringing an end to a two-month-long, acrimonious campaign, the second phase of polling Ninety-three assembly segments and key hubs like Vadodara and Ahmedabad will be held on Monday.
The central Gujarat region accounts for 61 seats in the 182-member assembly seats in the state and the remaining 32 in North Gujarat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted a more than 30-km-long roadshow in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Traditionally the BJP has been very strong in most of these urbanised areas. Of the 61 seats, three are SC reserved and as many as 10 Scheduled Tribe seats.
Vadnagar – the tiny township where PM Modi was born and grew up – also falls under Unjha assembly segment in North Gujarat. Vadnagar is a known BJP citadel, but more so – because of the ‘Modi magic.
In the first phase of polling on December 1, voters exercised their franchise in 89 seats across 19 districts.The voting turnout was around 48.48 per cent till 3 pm.
Some critical constituencies in the first phase included Surat, Porbandar, Khambhalia, Rajkot, Jamnagar North, and Morbi – the place which made news lately after the bridge collapsed, claiming about 140 lives.
Of course, the Kutch region was hit with a killer quake in 2000. Saurashtra region has agrarian issues and South Gujarat and Surat have challenges, although these regions have been achieving various ambitious targets one after another.
Some years back, when Modi was still the Chief Minister, many of his detractors had issues with Modi’s delivery ability. But sincerity counts a lot. “When corporate houses and common people find (found) an effective politician (Modi) who can make things happen on the ground, they are willing to ignore other issues and certain flaws,” remarked an official.
Sociologists say one way to look at things suggests that the revival of the Kutch region will continue to fascinate India. But it also agitates the rest of India, the world, and the opposition Congress.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel is undoubtedly a vital protagonist, and obviously, so is Narendra Modi, whose name is often synonymous with Gurarat’s developmental agenda and various anecdotes in Bhuj and adjoining areas.
The good old saying, the glass is half-full or half-empty, applies to all dynamic humanconditions. When we talk about development, economists and journalists argue that there is a missing link in the Kutch region’s economic evolution.
These regions and Gujarat as a state leap-forged from being predominantly agriculture-based to a service-led economy. But one part of the industry has the promise to fill this gap. It is the small and medium scale sector. Gujarat has also done well in the SME sector with large enterprises.
The Kutch has done its part. In South Gujarat and Surat region – people talk about diamond business and textiles.
A few years ago, Modi had said – “…by and large, there is an atmosphere of ‘chhoro yaar, sab bekar (what’s the use, there is no point. There will not be any result)”. This negative mood has prevailed in the country for a long time and in parts of Gujarat and especially the Kutch region after the 2000 quake.
If Gujarat has given anything, it has ensured that the same government apparatus, the same official files, same offices and officials and same rules and regulations, says educationist Neelambhar Bhai in Bhuj.
Despite all these, Gujarat has proved that the country can leap forward. Elections in Saurashtra were particularly vital.
In 2017, the BJP, which had won 115 seats in 2012 under Narendra Modi as Chief Minister, failed to touch 100 seats psychological mark. Of the drop in seats – 13 of them came from Saurashtra.
The BJP in 2012 – then with Narendra Modi as the chief minister – had a dream run of polls bagging five seats in Kutch and as many as 28 in South Gujarat.
The Kutch region has six Assembly constituencies – Mandvi, Anjar, Gandhidham and three others bordering Pakistan – Rapar, Abdasa and Bhuj.
Abdasa became a politically significant seat for this year’s polls. The reason was not merely an international border, it is essentially political and how BJP poll management works.
The BJP candidate for this much talked about Abdasa seat was a party hopper Pradhyumansinh Jadeja.
In 2017 polls, Jadeja was a Congress candidate and had won the seat too. But he jumped ship in 2020 and won the prestigious seat again in the 2020 by-elections. But Abdasa hit the headlines on November 28 as the AAP candidate, Vasant Khetani joined the Lotus party.
Of course, the AAP is now practically left with 180 candidates in the fray. Officially the last date for withdrawal of nomination is over. But politics is always more than what happens or can happen beyond ‘officially’.
AAP suffered yet another setback recently when its Surat East candidate Kanchan Jariwal withdrew nominations.
The saffron party has replaced sitting members and prominent faces and preferred new ones.
In Mandvi, the BJP has preferred Anirudhh Dave over its sitting MLA, Virendrasinh Jadeja.
In Anjar, which was devastated during the 2000 killer quake, the Lotus the party fielded Trikambhai Chhanga and replaced its sitting MLA, Vasanbhai Ahir.
Similarly, in Bhuj — which was the epicentre of quake devastation — the BJP party has dropped its two-time sitting legislator and Assembly Speaker Nimaben Acharya, with a “more locally acceptable face” Keshubhai Shivdas Patel.
Among the issues, ‘water supply is the most talked about topic in the Kutch region.
Officials say the multi-purpose inter-state Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) on the Narmada River has certainly proved to be a boon to the water-starved areas.
In 2000, even water trains were run to transport water in this region and some parts of Saurashtra. Now, the Narmada water has reached to Tappar Dam in the Kutch region. This has happened after travelling more than 600 km.
“This is a great engineering achievement as water has been raised above 54 metre in a series of pumping stations. Thus water is now supplied both for agricultural purposes and drinking,”Bhuj-based trader Arvind Lal.
