The way news channels have been discussing the Gujarat poll surveys, it would appear that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has already won the elections. It is only the Patidar leaders and some others who seem to be confident of their victory in the fierce elections. The ‘results’ seem to have been ‘declared’ on the basis of the outcomes of the expected exit polls.
This assessment fails to take into account any prospect of the BJP’s defeat against the hostile Congress. After all, the BJP does want to repeat its win at all costs. The Congress, on the other hand, hopes to establish its rule in the state after 22 long years. If the Gujarat elections are supposed to be a matter of prestige for both the wrangling parties, the people appear to be seeking a reasonably-polite discussion from the public domain.
Various exit polls have openly discounted the possibility of a dismal picture for the saffron party. In fact, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh are still hopeful of the party winning 150 seats. On the other hand, the Congress seems to have been apprehensive of the allegedly-sceptical gadget known as the electronic voting machine (EVM). The Election Commission has, time and again, tried to clear its name from this EVM mess. Despite this, doubts about the device still persist.
In the meantime, the NCP leader Nawab Malik got into a heated debate with the Congress leader AP Singh for donning the saffron jacket. He made it emphatically clear that this colour was never for the members of the Congress. Their colour was white.
To be precise, the senior NCP leader maintained that ‘soft Hindutva‘ was not going to help the Congress in any way. This ‘soft’ type of idealism had earlier been ridiculed by the saffron party.
Rahul Gandhi was supposed to have performed pujas in as many as 25 temples in the state and covered many miles, in keeping with the party’s traditional philosophy of padyatra. In my opinion, the Congress’ leaders also appeared to have changed their speech styles. Apparently, viewers could even see them mimicking the body gestures of BJP leaders.
What was also discussed in detail was the Congress party’s calculated distance from the Muslim leaders in Gujarat. However, this may also be because the BJP is perhaps trying to take advantage from the possibility that Ahmed Patel may be the chief minister (CM) if the Congress wins the elections on Monday.
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