Gujarat Elections: 56.8 Per cent Turn out in the First Phase, Modi Holds a Record Roadshow in Ahmedabad

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Dec 1: A low 56.8 per cent of the voters are estimated to have turned up to cast their votes in 89 state Assembly constituencies that went to polls in the first phase of the elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly on Thursday.

The first phase of polling covered 19 districts in the Kutch-Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions including five municipal corporation areas of Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Junagadh with the diamond city of Surat being the key city that voted in the first phase. The second phase of polling to be held on Monday in the remaining 93 seats in the north and central Gujarat regions covering the capital city of Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Polling by and large was peaceful.

While the polling was on in the first phase, the prime minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a mega roadshow — said to be the longest-ever by an Indian leader – covering 16 state Assembly seats in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

The choice of the Prime Minister’s route has been a statement of sorts. The 50-km roadshow started this evening from Naroda Gam — one of the epicentres of the 2002 riots following the fire in Sabarmati Express in Godhra — which is trying to put the past behind. It culminated in Gandhinagar South after making its way through 16 seats — including  Thakkarbapanagar, Bapunagar, Nikol, Amraiwadi, Maninagar, Danilimbda, Jamalpur Khadia, Elisbridge, Vejalpur, Ghatlodia, Naranpur and Sabarmati.

The roadshow by the prime minister was the BJP’s biggest event in this election, where thousands marched to festive drumbeats, waving party flags. The Prime Minister, festooned with garlands, rode in an open SUV, waving to cheering crowds that lined on both sides of the roads. The party claimed it was the longest roadshow by an Indian political leader. There were about 35 stops along the way, at monuments honouring famous personalities, including Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.   The BJP has fielded the daughter of a riot convict from the Naroda seat, which has been voting for the party since 1990. The candidate, 30-year-old Payal Kukrani, is the daughter of Manoj Kukrani one of the 16 convicts in the Naroda Patiya riots case in which 97 Muslims were killed. An anaesthetist, she is among the youngest candidates fielded by the party this time.

Manoj Kukrani, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, is currently out on bail. The Gujarat High Court had upheld his conviction and that of 15 others. Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Omprakash Tiwari, a two-term municipal councillor from Naroda who contested from the seat on the Congress ticket in the 2017.

The home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat is a huge prestige battle for the BJP. The BJP – whose numbers in the state assembly has been steadily shrinking since 2002 — has set a target of 140 of the 182 seats in the Assembly. In 2017, the party won 99 seats, 77 went to the Congress. Modi continues to be the BJP’s biggest asset having so far addressed 20 rallies in the state so far and is scheduled to address seven more in the next two days besides the mega rally on Thursday.

For the BJP, which has been ruling the state since 1995, the real challenge is arresting the slide in numbers. The party’s score has been shrinking since 2002 – dropping from 137 to 99 in the 2017 election.