GPCC chief dissects BJP landslide: 'Money & muscle power, misuse of state machinery'

Ahmedabad, Jan 1 The Gujarat Congress faced its worst rout in the history of the Assembly elections, all because of the ruling party's money and muscle power with blatant misuse of the state machinery, and the Election Commission becoming a mute spectator to the complaints lodged by the Congress.

These are the findings of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President, Jagdish Thakor.

Speaking to , GPCC President Jagdish Thakor said, "We respect the people's verdict. But, at the same time the fact is that the Congress was on a very strong footing. There was anti-incumbency, people were angry with the government, that is also equally true. The entry of AAP played a negative role and divided anti-incumbency votes which went against the Congress and helped the BJP."

"This is the first reason for losing elections," Thakor said.

He spoke to his candidates, party cadre and workers, and the feedback he got clearly indicated that the ruling party has "purchased" votes, he said.

"Where the bribing was not working, the ruling party arm-twisted local leaders or people. When that also failed it used local police like Local Crime Branch and Special Operation Group team members to threaten voters of small group/community leaders to get votes in favour of the ruling party," Thalor said.

The GPCC president has alleged that the Gandhinagar Range Inspector General Abhay Chudasama had gone all out in using his team and force against the Congress candidates to ensure victory for the BJP candidate.

Reiterating that there was a strong anti-BJP wave, the Congress president said, "The BJP had to give up its philosophy, and excluding one or two cases, majority of the 'dabang' leaders were repeated, that shows how much the ruling party was worried of losing the elections."

Citing the smart strategy of the BJP and its sister organisations which helped the ruling party to win elections, he said, "They had identified at least 2,000 to 3,000 voters who were lured through various means to vote for BJP candidate.

He claimed, "I had learned about this two to three months before the elections and in each and every meeting I was alerting my party workers about the strategy, but we could not stop them."

The major challenge the Congress faced was that the Election Commission turned a blind eye towards BJP's unethical practices.

Thakor said, "The Election Commission did not look into the complaints lodged by the Congress against the BJP. Our Danta candidate was kidnapped, midnight I reached the office of the Chief Electoral Office with my colleagues, but the office was closed. The Chief Electoral Officer was not responding to our calls. This is the best example to cite how the commission had turned a mute spectator."

Talking about the weaknesses and failures of the Congress party, Thakor said, "The party organisation was strong and intact. After a long time the party workers fought the elections shoulder to shoulder. The major problem the party faced was finance, though sufficient funds were provided to the candidates, when it comes to the party level, the expenditure that the BJP did, Congress can't match that."

The other factors that worked against the party, he feels are Koli OBC voters, who have always stood with the Congress even in bad times. "They have deserted the party on many seats this time, Leuva Patel has en masse voted against the Congress in the Saurashtra region, which has changed the overall result count. Unfortunately these developments were not recorded on Congress radar in advance... otherwise we could have planned better."

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