Modi strengthened by victory in Congress bastion

On his 60 birthday, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has got a sweet gift in form of electoral victory of Kanubhai Dabhi in the Kathlal constituency in Kheda district. The victory is historic because the Bharatiya Janata Party has never won this seat before.

The election was fought on the issue of development, the Sohrabuddin encounter case and the Central Bureau of Investigation's action against former BJP minister Amit Shah. The constituency is close to Gandhinagar and a bastion of Congress for the last 60 years.

The BJP has won with the margin of 21,547 votes. The BJP and the Congress both had put all their resources behind the election.

Arjun Modhawadia, state Congress leader, blamed it on Modi's "muscle power and money power." While BJP leader Vijay Rupani said it is the victory of Modi's "garib kalayan mela" which gives faster benefit of government schemes to the poor.

The victory is pertinent for the BJP core voters because it came despite the embarrassment to the government in the Sohrabuddin encounter case.

Interestingly, Kathlal had helped Dinsha Patel and Bharatsinh Solanki, currently ministers at the Centre, in shaping their careers. The area was traditionally part of tremendous political influence of Ishwarsinh Chawada, father-in-law of former chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki. He used the caste combination of the region to implement his politically potent KHAM (Kashtriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim) theory. In 2004, former CM Shankersinh Vaghela, appealing to other backward classes, had won from here with a massive margin of 50,000 votes after joining the Congress.

This was A-grade seat of the Congress and defeat here shows that the state is still firmly in control of Modi.

The BJP central headquarters in New Delhi also hailed the victory.

"The verdict lays bare the Congress attempts to misuse the CBI in the Sohrabbudin case for its political gains and reaffirms the BJP's developmental agenda and pro-people policies," party spokesperson Nirmala Sitaraman said in a statement.

"The Congress with its representative central ministers like Solanki and Patel tried everything in their might to retain what is their sole bastion. But the people have taught them a bitter lesson," she added.

The Congress in the state will have many reasons to worry. According to a party's office bearer, "We have lost because we didn't develop local leadership after the death of three-term MLA Gautambhai Jhala. Also, our organisation was very weak."

The Congress is now worried about the ripple effect of the win in the coming civic election in six cities on October 10 and on elections to taluka panchayats on October 21.  

In fact, at the popular level, the BJP had played a better psychological game.

A Congress leader complained, "We were amazed to see that the Modi government was successful in deflecting the entire blame of the CBI action in Sohrabuddin case into our court. We were defensive. We failed to hit the streets to expose Modi's lie. Modi said that the CBI is simply incapable of taking independent action and the investigation is instigated by the Congress leadership. Can you believe it?"  

It seems some voters in Gujarat did.