National party like Congress is now looking for the alliance with Hardik Patel’s Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti for making most of Gujarat assembly elections after spate of defeats in the State elections in the last 3 years. Thus 20 Patidars in Congress first list and the fine print is expected at any time. Rahul Gandhi’s Congress is in Hardik Patel’s embrace and that does not augurs well for an age old party. Instead of going all alone, now such a drastic move is taken to upset the applecart. But on the other hand the vote share will come down drastically due to coalition politics and that will help BJP to sail smoothly in the elections. BJP is holding the state and there is less chance of a turnaround. Gujarat saw maximum development during the rule of BJP and people are pinning hope on Modi as the state is looking for further development. Public memory is not short and they will repose faith on Modi after the recent favourable reports from Moody’s and overall development of the state in the last couple of years. Rahul on the other hand lacks the enterprise and there are opposition from his own party about his elevation as the party president. Again, in the last couple years he could not force a win in his home state of UP, where BJP won with an overwhelming majority. But for a win because of anti-incumbency in Punjab the results favour BJP and the Hardik embracing Congress will not see much of a change in the ultimate result in Gujarat.
Nickhil Akhilesh Krishnan
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
