Gujarat UK JOURNAL
Volume 1 I Issue 10 I December 2017
Chanakya An Indian teacher, philosopher, economist, jurist and authored the ancient Indian political treatise. 310 BC
Christmas
Managing Editor Buddhdev Pandya MBEsAssistant Editor Satish ParmarsEditor-India Mukeshbhai Patel
A victory without shine! BJP retains Gujarat but Congress breathes revival
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Rahul Gandhi Incumbent Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) Takes Leadership of Indian National managed to retain power in a bitter battle Congress for the Gujarat Legislative Assembly. The poll results announced on 18th December shows that the BJP has fallen short of its 2012 tally of 115 seats by winning only 99 seats. In contrast, the Indian National Congress in opposition showed a remarkable revival despite the Prime Minister bringing in his entire senior Cabinet ranking Ministers and Chief Ministers to support him in the
Gujarat campaign.
T
he BJP’s final seat tally of 99 seats was the lowest in nearly two decades and the first time since 1998 that it slipped into double digits. The campaign saw Rahul Gandhi in a new mood and his strategy rattled the BJP senior ranks. Undoubtedly, he succeeded in rejuvenating his party in the state. Though this was a straight fight of reputation and pride between Modi and Gandhi the third factor of fringe groups also emerged opposing the BJP. It opened a new can of worms that has begun to expose the ground zero reality in areas of unemployment, crash of the small and medium enterprises and the plight of the farmers. Most of these issues failed to grab central attention and remained largely sidelined in the main stream media in its wider sense. It was evident in the approach of Prime Minister Modi that he seemed to be reluctant to expand the ‘development’ agenda with reference to over two decades of Send news
the BJP rule in the state. The BJP campaign was pinned down by a faction of its historically most loyal supporters - the Patidar lobby with accusations of betrayals and fake promises by the BJP. Led by Hardik Patel, it was inciting the BJP voters to rebel against their own party to teach ‘lesson’. Patel was also supported by leaders of other minority groups, including the Dalits. The Muslims in the state have remained ‘quiet’ and out of focus. More than 5.5 lakh voters, amounting to 1.8% of the total eligible voters, chose to express their dislike for all the contesting candidates in the election by opting for the None Of The Above (NOTA) button, while there was also an almost 3% drop in the overall turnout compared to the 2012 polls. There were criticisms of hypocrisy levelled against the Election Commission. The Congress Party alleged that the commission had ignored the speech made by the Prime Minister at a business event and or comments
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BJP chief Amit Shah, Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal also made speeches in violation of the model code of conduct. The Commission was also accused of allowing the BJP to release its manifesto, described as a “Sankalp Patra”, one day before the first phase of the polls since it may have been a major violation of the election model code of conduct! In contrast, the Commission had issued a notice to Congress leader Gandhi for giving an exclusive interview on a local TV channel. The show cause notice was withdrawn after the election. It was surprising that the commission had also issued a gagging order to the press; restraining from broadcasting the Rahul Gandhi interview. Such footages would not be difficult to publicise using Youtube or WhatsApp and other social media. Most activists media saw this as an unprecedented attack on the freedom of the press.
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Mr Rahul Gandhi, an MP from Amethi has taken over as the President of the Indian National Congress (INC) after the formal process of election was concluded this month. In 2007 he was elected as the general secretary in charge of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and the National Students Union of India (NSUI). He was elected as Vice-President in 2013. Mr Gandhi, is replacing his mother Mrs Sonia Gandhi who led India’s oldest party for 19 years and made it a winnable party to hold power for two terms in the Parliament. The challenge for the new president would be to strengthen his party and face the incumbent Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi who has a well oiled campaigned machinery backed by the Rastriya Seva Sangh (RSS) and other pro Hindutva lobby organisations.
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