Gujarat polls: After tie-up with Cong, NCP fights its lowest count of 3 seats 

Tomar, a local businessman, told The Indian Express, “I’m already a corporator in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on a Congress ticket. If I had to fight the Assembly elections as a NCP candidate, I’d have to resign as a corporator.”

With all three seats going to polls in the second phase on December 5, the NCP said it has fielded a fresh candidate, Meghraj Dodwani, in place of Tomar.

The NCP’s problems began after it went public about its alliance with the Congress a week ago. On November 16, Gujarat spokesperson Reshma Patel quit the NCP to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Patel had been a close aide of Hardik Patel during the 2016 Patidar agitation, and is known for her oratory skills.

A day before that, the party refused to back the candidature of its sitting Porbandar MLA and strongman Kandal Jadeja, its lone MLA in the current Assembly, who has been winning the Kutiyana seat since 2012. Jadeja had filed his nomination for the seat as an NCP candidate on November 5. But the same day, the NCP announced its seat-sharing alliance with the Congress, accepting only three of 182 seats, its lowest in two decades.

Jadeja proceeded to quit the NCP and filed his nomination as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party, as well as an Independent. He’s probably keeping his options open till the end. Jadeja is the son of the late gangster Santokben, popularly known as ‘Godmother’, who once represented the Janata Dal in the Kutiyana seat, before going Independent when the party split.

On Reshma Patel, Gujarat NCP president Jayant Patel, alias Jayant Boskey, said, “It is the season for changing parties. Her request to contest from Gondal was denied by the party, so she quit.” Patel, who joined AAP, told The Indian Express that she will fight in the polls only if her new party wants her to.

When pointed out that 2022 will see the lowest representation of candidates from the NCP in 20 years, Boskey said, “We do not have any big plans for Gujarat elections. We did not get good, suitable candidates. Also, businessmen don’t want to enter the fray due to the present atmosphere. They are all scared of the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate.” On chances of winning the three seats in which NCP has put candidates, Boskey said, “We will give a good fight. The results will also depend on how individual candidates work.”

Boskey, who was one of the 58 NCP candidates who fought the 2017 Assembly polls, has filed his nomination from the Umreth seat in Anand district of central Gujarat. He will be taking on sitting BJP MLA Govind Parmar. In 2017, when 56 NCP nominees had lost their deposits and accounted for just 0.62 per cent of the total votes polled, he had come third, behind the Congress candidate. Kandal Jadeja was the sole victor for the NCP in 2017, after alliance talks between the Congress and the NCP had fallen through.

Yet, even when the NCP was fighting on its own in 2017, its supremo, Sharad Pawar, did not take part in the campaign, raising doubts about the party’s intent to expand its footprint in Gujarat. This time, though, Pawar figures in the NCP’s list of 31 star campaigners, which also includes Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, former Union minister Praful Patel and spokesperson Clyde Castro.

“Our alliance with the Congress is in place and we are more focused this time,” said Boskey, without clarifying if the NCP will support any candidate outside the alliance. On Thursday, Lavar Gopsing filed his nomination as the NCP candidate from Devgadh Baria. Gopsinh has described himself as a farmer in his affidavit filed with the Election Commission.