New (Samajweekly) The Congress, which posed a tough challenge to the BJP in in last assembly polls has been decimated in the 2021 municipality polls as BJP has swept the state, but surprisingly the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has made inroads in Gujarat’s urban centres which is a bigger threat for the Congress.
In Surat, the AAP has pushed the Congress from second to third position. Congress state in-charge Rajeev Satav did not respond to calls but former Congress President Arjun Modwadia, speaking on the phone from Porbandar, told IANS: “The election results of six municipalities are disheartening for Congress workers in Gujarat. We accept the people’s mandate but after every dark night there is a dawn. We will work hard to get the confidence of urban voters.
In the last assembly elections it was Surat where all the seats were won by the BJP and this time the surprise package is AAP.
Modwadia accepted there was mismanagement in elections and at the organisational level. “Urban centres have gone weak,” he said. Also, the AIMIM has dented the Congress’s prospects in the state.
The Congress lost all the the Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 General Elections.
The BJP is set to lead local bodies in Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar.
In Vadodara, the BJP has captured 66 seats out of the total 76 of the VMC, the rest going to the opposition Congress.
In Rajkot, the BJP has captured 68 seats out of the total 72 seats, with four going to the Congress.
In Jamnagar, the BJP has captured 50 seats out of the total 64 of the JMC, while the opposition Congress won 11 seats and the Bahujan Samaj Party took three seats, opening their account in Gujarat.
In Bhavnagar, the BJP has captured 44 seats out of the total 52 of the BMC, the rest going to the opposition Congress.
Following the poor performance of the Congress, a series of city party chiefs resigned on Tuesday. Ashok Dangar, Rajkot Congress president tendered his resignation. Similarly, Babu Rayka, Surat Congress president and Prakash Vaghani, Bhavnagar Congress president, also submitted their resignations.
