With the Lok Sabha elections drawing near, political parties have begun poaching from other parties. Sitting Congress MP from Jamnagar Vikram Madam is reported to be switching over to the BJP, while his BJP counterpart from Surendranagar, Somabhai Patel has already announced his plan to join the Congress, provided he is given the party ticket for the Lok Sabha elections from Surendranagar. Several Congress leaders including former minister Ishwarsinh Chavda and Karsandas Soneri are likely to join the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) at a function at Dinesh Hall in Ashram on December 19. Union minister and senior NCP leader Praful Patel, according to NCP sources, will preside over the induction of Congress leaders in the party trying to emerge as the Third Force in the state. Another former Congress minister Ishwar Makwana from Mehsana joined the NCP recently. Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Yogendra Makwana quit the party to float his own National Bahujan Congress party. Another Congress leader Laljibhai Mer crossed over to the BJP.Jayant Patel, the NCP state president and MLA from Sarsa in Anand district, however, said his party was not poaching on the Congress. He said a large number of Congress leaders and workers from across the state had themselves been approaching him to join the NCP.According to Congress and NCP leaders, the reason for quitting the Congress to join the NCP or other outfits is not that these leaders are upset with the Congress, but because many believe that they do not have any future in their respective parties.“In fact, it is the political ambition of the leaders which made them cross over to other parties,” they said, adding that many leaders were quitting their parties just because they did not get the chance to contest the polls.Primarily, it is this situation which is helping the NCP in its expansion to emerge as a third force in Gujarat, which has so far virtually remained under a two party system. With the emergence of a sizable middle class in several backward and tribal communities fuelled by educational and economic growth in the last two decades, youths from these communities have developed political aspirations as well. “Hence, a third political force to fill the vacuum in the political arena has become a necessity and only the NCP is capable of doing it at the moment,” said Jayant Patel.Though the Samajwadi Party is also wooing leaders from other parties, it is the NCP with its national leaders having some kind of cultural proximity with the people of the state, which seem to have an edge over the former. The SP drew a blank in the last Assembly elections, while the NCP managed to win three of the eight Assembly seats it contested. Besides Sarsa in Anand, it won Devgadh Baria in the tribal Dahod district and Gondal in Rajkot district. The NCP also controls the four municipalities of Thadad in Banskantha, Sutrapada in Junagadh, Devgadh Baria in Dahod and Boriavi in Anand.According to sources in the Samajwadi Party state unit, several tribal leaders like Chhotubhai Vasava, BJP parliamentarian Babubhai Katara, who has been charged of human trafficking, and former minister Kanaksinh Mangrola will soon join party.
