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Journalism of Courage
SURAT, Sept 6: Despite low voter turnout, the BJP is still confident of winning the Surat Lok Sabha seat by a margin of four lakh votes. But the 1996 and 1991 elections results indicate that the BJP candidate may not achieve his “target”. Even BJP leaders privately concede this point.
Polling touched rock-bottom this election with a voter turnout of 32.26 per cent, even lower than 1996’s 33.50 per cent. Out of 19.50 lakh registered voters in the constituency, only 6,29,314 cast their votes. This does not augur well for the BJP’s Kashiram Rana, who made a tall claim that he would win by the highest margin in the state.
In 1996, when Manu Kotadia of the Congress, an outsider, was pitted against Rana, the BJP candidate had won by a margin of 1,75,363 lakh votes. Even then, the Congress candidate had polled 2,16,720 votes. The voting pattern in Surat Lok Sabha constituency indicates that the Congress party has two lakh committed voters.
The Congress secured its highest votes in the last three elections in 1998 when former cooperative minister Thakore Naik polled 2,60,579 votes. Even in 1991 when lightweight Sahadev Chaudhary contested against Rana, the Congress had polled 2,29,931 votes.
All this indicates that the BJP’s claim of a four-lakh vote victory margin might prove a nightmare. However, BJP city General Secretary Kanubhai Joshi puts a brave face. “I still stick to our claim that we will win by a margin of four lakh votes,” he says.
The BJP has reason to be optimistic, considering Youth Congress leader Sanjay Patwa’s allegation that a section of Congress leaders had left no stone unturned to sabotage the prospects of Congress candidate Rupin Patchigar.
In more than 50 per cent of the polling booths, the Congress did not have polling agents. Not many Congress workers were not seen around.
