'The people of Gujarat are more religious than people of other states, this gives the BJP an advantage.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party has swept the municipal elections in Gujarat, winning 60 out of 68 municipalities in the state.
Three years ago, the BJP won 156 out of 182 seats in the Gujarat assembly elections.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 25 out of 26 seats, with the Congress' Geniben Thakor winning the Banaskantha seat.
The BJP has been ruling Gujarat continuously since 1995, and this week's election results show no sign of its victory march slowing down.
Why does Gujarat vote for the BJP so? What has the party done to win the people's trust over the last three decades, defying anti-incumbency?
"The BJP plans elections five years ahead of its time while the Congress will wake up just before elections to hunt for party workers," Prashant Dayal, a senior journalist and political observer from Gujarat, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com in the first of a two-part interview.
Why is it that no party can defeat the BJP in Gujarat?
The first and foremost reason is that the BJP runs the party like a factory owner runs his factory. Just like a factory owner keeps round the clock watch on his factory and factory workers, BJP bosses do the same thing. The BJP as a party works extremely hard to succeed. They work round the clock.
Do you mean that each BJP office in Gujarat is run like a successful factory and that gives them election victory?
Yes, they work 24x7x365. These BJP offices are never shut.
If you compare this with the Congress headquarters in Gujarat you will find that they have holidays on Eid, Diwali and all other holidays, including Sundays. This has resulted in the Congress becoming a government party which is lifeless.
The BJP plans elections five years ahead of its time while the Congress will wake up just before elections to hunt for party workers.
The state of the Congress is so bad in some places in Gujarat that they do not have polling agents who can sit at the polling stations.
What went wrong with the Congress?
They do not have any mass leader in Gujarat to attract voters.
The BJP works in Gujarat due to the aura of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, though the state has seen three chief ministers since Modi left the state to become prime minister in 2014.
Secondly, the BJP and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) used Gujarat as a litmus test for their political laboratory.
What do you mean by litmus test?
Take, for example, the state elections of 1995 in Gujarat. At that time T N Seshan was the chief election commissioner. He had instructed that no religious card can be used in elections. The BJP was in limbo because it know it did not have any other card to play among voters but the Hindu religion card.
And see how they tackled this problem in the 1995 elections. They roped in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad who addressed voters in the name of the Dharam Sabha. Every constituency had religious leaders like Acharya Dharmendra Maharaj, Sadhvi Rithambara who only used to speak about Hindu religion. These VHP leaders never uttered a word stating that voters must vote for the BJP.
The people of Gujarat understood that Hinduism equals BJP. The people of Gujarat are more religious than people of other states, this gives the BJP an advantage.
There is a difference between being a staunch Hindu and practising communal politics.
The people of Gujarat associate the BJP and Hinduism as one. They do not see them as different.
The BJP too has proved it to them that they are the only true Hindus and the Congress is a fake Hindu party. This is ingrained in the minds of the voters of Gujarat.
Don't the people of Gujarat get tired of seeing the same BJP leaders for the last 30 years?
Even if they are, whom do they have as alternative? No one.
People do not have another choice. They do not see any face in the Opposition whom they feel can take on the BJP.
Take the Kutiyana assembly seat in Saurashtra. There was a lady named Santokben Jadeja, often called 'Godmother'. After she died her son Kandhalbhai Jadeja proved to be a dynamic political leader. He won two municipalities in Gujarat on the Samajwadi Party symbol.
If the Congress can get some face of this stature, then the people of Gujarat will vote for the party but unfortunately they do not have any such leader in the state.
In 30 years the Congress could not find a single face in Gujarat to take on the BJP!?
The BJP understood very early that any rising star politician in the Congress party, take him or her in the BJP.
Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor or for that matter even Arjun Modvadia, all of them are in the BJP now.
Today, the situation of the BJP in Gujarat is that 70 percent of its leaders are from the Congress.
And all these Congress leaders like Alpesh Thakor, Arjun Modvadia or Narhari Amin have no work in the BJP. Hardik Patel too is sitting idle.
They give tickets to these Congress leaders but then make them sit in the BJP godown without work.
Why do these leaders join the BJP when they get no status in the party?
When they are in the Opposition no work of theirs gets done.
If they are in government then the collector and superintendent of police give them a hearing, else nobody takes them seriously.
Secondly, some of these leaders are stuck in court cases or some other problems.
The BJP is like a washing machine to clean their dirt.
For example, Hardik Patel had sedition cases against him. He had two options -- either go to jail or quit the Congress and join the BJP. He chose the BJP.
- Part 2 of the Interview: 'BJP Never Takes Any Election Lightly'
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