With the Assembly budget session coming to an end on Thursday, the BJP and the Congress are now readying themselves for a political battle for the by-elections to seven Assembly seats likely to be held in September.
While six of these seats fell vacant after the MLAs representing these constituencies got elected to Lok Sabha, the bypoll for the Chotila seat was necessitated due to the death of sitting MLA Popatbhai Jinjaria.
Both the parties are attaching great importance to the bypolls. According to political observers, the outcome is likely to have an impact on the state politics, particularly in the saffron party. Their analysis is based on the outcome of the bypolls in the Sabarkantha and Sabarmati Assembly segments in 2001 during Keshubhai Patel’s government, after which he had stepped down as Chief Minister, paving the way for Narendra Modi to take over the reigns of the state.
As six of these seats — Jasdan, Danta, Sami-Harji, Dhoraji, Dahegam and Chotila — were held by the Congress, the party leaders are leaving no stone unturned to retain them. The party is in an upbeat mood after its victory in the Junagadh Municipal Corporation elections, while the BJP is smarting under its defeat in the JMC polls and its average performance in the April Lok Sabha elections.
Congress leaders, including state unit president Siddharth Patel, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil and senior leader Arjun Modhwadia, have already taken a round of these constituencies to mobilise the workers at the grassroots level and assess the situation.
“We have appointed one senior leader in each of the seven Assembly segments as in-charge to mobilise the party workers,” said Patel.
He further said that JMC and Lok Sabha poll results indicate that Modi’s grip over the people of the state is “waning”.
The saffron party, on the other hand, is also not leaving anything to chance. BJP state president Purshottam Rupala said the party had already asked the workers in the seven constituencies to be ready for the bypolls.
“I have personally asked the party chiefs in all the seven constituencies to take stock of the situation and report the matter to the state unit so as to prepare the poll strategy,” Rupala told The Indian Express, adding that the BJP was studying as to what led to its defeat in six constituencies in the 2007 Assembly polls.
He said, although the bypoll results would have no effect on the state government, but winning these seats was important for the BJP because it would contest it as the ruling party.
Courtesy : www.indianexppress.com
While six of these seats fell vacant after the MLAs representing these constituencies got elected to Lok Sabha, the bypoll for the Chotila seat was necessitated due to the death of sitting MLA Popatbhai Jinjaria.
Both the parties are attaching great importance to the bypolls. According to political observers, the outcome is likely to have an impact on the state politics, particularly in the saffron party. Their analysis is based on the outcome of the bypolls in the Sabarkantha and Sabarmati Assembly segments in 2001 during Keshubhai Patel’s government, after which he had stepped down as Chief Minister, paving the way for Narendra Modi to take over the reigns of the state.
As six of these seats — Jasdan, Danta, Sami-Harji, Dhoraji, Dahegam and Chotila — were held by the Congress, the party leaders are leaving no stone unturned to retain them. The party is in an upbeat mood after its victory in the Junagadh Municipal Corporation elections, while the BJP is smarting under its defeat in the JMC polls and its average performance in the April Lok Sabha elections.
Congress leaders, including state unit president Siddharth Patel, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil and senior leader Arjun Modhwadia, have already taken a round of these constituencies to mobilise the workers at the grassroots level and assess the situation.
“We have appointed one senior leader in each of the seven Assembly segments as in-charge to mobilise the party workers,” said Patel.
He further said that JMC and Lok Sabha poll results indicate that Modi’s grip over the people of the state is “waning”.
The saffron party, on the other hand, is also not leaving anything to chance. BJP state president Purshottam Rupala said the party had already asked the workers in the seven constituencies to be ready for the bypolls.
“I have personally asked the party chiefs in all the seven constituencies to take stock of the situation and report the matter to the state unit so as to prepare the poll strategy,” Rupala told The Indian Express, adding that the BJP was studying as to what led to its defeat in six constituencies in the 2007 Assembly polls.
He said, although the bypoll results would have no effect on the state government, but winning these seats was important for the BJP because it would contest it as the ruling party.
Courtesy : www.indianexppress.com
