Many Surats in Gujarat? Local polls coming, one-tenth of seats already with BJP, ‘uncontested’

There are 2,178 seats across the 170 civic bodies where voting is to take place on Sunday. The BJP had swept the last elections, held in 2021, recovering quickly from the setback it suffered in the 2017 Assembly polls due to the Patidar quota stir.

Of the 215 seats which the BJP has won uncontested, 196 are in municipalities, 10 in district and taluka panchayats, and nine in the Junagadh Municipal Corporation, the only corporation where elections are being held. The 60 seats in the Junagadh corporation are spread over 15 wards, and in two of these now, the Congress has no candidate in the fray.

Since the bump it got in the 2017 Assembly polls due to the Patidar stir, the Congress has been on a downward spiral in Gujarat. It fell from 99 seats in the 2017 Assembly polls to 17 in 2022. Five of the 17 MLAs later left the Congress and won back on the BJP ticket.

In last year’s Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won just one seat, with the BJP again sweeping the state, getting 25.

Valsad City Congress president Girish Desai, contesting from Ward No. 3 of Valsad Municipality in South Gujarat, said he was himself sure of his panel of four candidates winning. In the Congress for the past 55 years, the 78-year-old added that while the party indeed had a “poor organisational structure”, “the reason is that we have been out of power in the state and local bodies for a long time”. “During the elections and after the results, the BJP uses all the techniques at its disposal to lure elected Congress leaders.”

Desai claims the inducements vary from money to “threats” such as telling Congress candidates that their relatives holding government jobs would be transferred.

He said that for the Valsad Municipality elections, the Congress had decided to keep a line open to Independents. “We fielded 29 candidates, of whom two came under pressure from the BJP and withdrew… We will take the help of Independents if needed for a majority.”

In Valsad district, 72 seats across three municipalities will be voting. Congress candidates have withdrawn on nine, seven of these in Valsad Municipality alone.

Last month, in a major embarrassment for the Congress, its Valsad City president, Ronak Shah, resigned after the BJP gave his wife Yogini a ticket for the municipality polls. Later, the couple joined the BJP.

Mamta Dholatre, who withdrew on the last day as the Congress candidate from Ward No. 10 of Valsad Municipality, handing the seat to the BJP, told The Indian Express: “There was a lot of pressure from my in-laws, relatives and friends. Even my husband Vikram told me to withdraw so as to not create enmity with others. I am a housewife, and this was my first election.”

Another Congress candidate who withdrew was Sandeep Dabhadiya, who was to contest from Ward No. 3 of Dharampur Municipality In Valsad. “This was my first election, and I was quite enthusiastic… But there was pressure from the community and I could not bear it as politics is not my bread and butter. I withdrew on February 3.”

Dabhadiya added that four Congress candidates from Ward No. 1 had also withdrawn. “The young generations are attracted to the BJP, as they are connected with social media. They have not seen the Congress’s way of working. The BJP has also approached me several times, but I refuse to leave the Congress,” he said.

Ajit Garasiya, the Congress president of Dharampur taluka, said that the Congress candidates who withdrew had done so under BJP “pressure tactics”. “The BJP has been in power for five terms, and people are fed up. BJP leaders sensed that. As a result, they were using all means to win.”

A party functionary from Central Gujarat also talked of “pressure” by the BJP “to ensure that most of the seats go uncontested”. “They are aware they may lose if there is actual voting.”

Another Congress leader from Central Gujarat said they suspected that five cases of rejection of nominations of their party candidates were actually a case of “passive withdrawal, with a prior understanding”.

Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said: “In Dharampur, they even abducted four candidates of the Congress, who later withdrew. We were out of touch with them for days… We filed a complaint with the state election commission and the local police, but no FIR was registered.” He said they lost 26 other candidates “in the same manner”, across districts.

Campaigning for the Junagadh Municipal Corporation elections on Thursday, Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil asserted the party was confident of giving the BJP a good fight “because there is anger among voters”. “This is why the BJP is using money, muscle power, misuse of police and administration and deploying goons… Why are they afraid?” he said, adding that the party has decided to “expel” the 215 candidates who withdrew.

Dismissing the claims of Congress leaders, a senior BJP leader said blaming the BJP was “a lazy excuse for a collapsing pack”. In-charge of a municipality and two local body seats in Central Gujarat, he said: “With the BJP opening its doors, influential Congress leaders have left, leaving the party with few good faces. The party had trouble finding candidates. Except for a symbol, the Congress has nothing to offer its candidates… So a lot of their first-time candidates are developing cold feet.”

Nearly a year after he witnessed the BJP pull off the Surat walkover in the Lok Sabha polls, Surat City Congress president Dhansukh Rajput said the party is getting its house in order. Accusing party candidate Nilesh Kumbhani of having duped the Congress then, ensuring that his nomination papers were rejected, Rajput said: “We have ensured that no Congress leader makes such a ‘mistake’ again.”