Morbi Congress candidate Jayantilal Jerajbhai Patel avoids using bridge tragedy to woo voters

Jayantilal Jerajbhai Patel, the Congress candidate from the Morbi Assembly constituency, and a group of around 50 Congress workers hit the Vavdi Road in the town on a Friday morning. system mounted on a multi-utility vehicle announces Patel’s arrival even as workers of his party go from one shop after another and homes to distribute pamphlets and seek votes for their candidate. Patel, the incumbent president of Morbi district unit of the Congress, is trying his luck for the seventh time in the Assembly election. He had lost five consecutive elections from the seat between 1990 and 2007. Four of those—in 1995, 1998, 2002 and 2007—had come against Kantilal Amrutiya (the current BJP candidate from Morbi) after Patel lost his maiden Assembly election to Babubhai Jashbhai Patel, the former chief minister of Gujarat. After a gap of 13 years, the Congress fielded him in a bypoll in 2020 after Brijesh Merja, who was elected MLA on a Congress ticket, defected to the BJP and sought a re-election as a BJP nominee. But Patel lost by 4,649 votes.

When reminded that the BJP claims unprecedented development during its rule, the Congressman hits back. “You see what happened to Jhulto Pul and then talk about the unprecedented development said to have been achieved during the BJP regime. The BJP talks about the development even as Morbi’s pride (Jhulto Pul), which was built by the royal family 140 years ago, came crashing down, killing 150 (sic) residents. It’s been 18 days since and yet, no concrete step has been taken,” Patel says, underlining that the BJP is ruling Morbi Municipality that owns the bridge. “The first question the Gujarat High Court asked two days ago was why the municipality was not being superseded and why no one was being held accountable.” The Congress leader does not mention the bridge tragedy while campaigning. Instead, his pamphlets promise free electricity, free medical treatment up to Rs10 lakh, Rs 3,000 unemployment allowance, free bus rides and hostels to students from rural areas.“It (the bridge collapse) is not a poll issue as people have still not overcome the grief. People will never be able to forget it. So, in such a sombre mood, we are campaigning with simplicity and requesting people to support us,” says Patel. The Morbi Assembly seat falls under the Kutch Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Dalit BJP MP Vinod Chavda.  Elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8. While the BJP will be trying to continue its electoral success of the past several elections, the Congress would be looking to unseat the saffron party. This time the aggressive campaign of AAP has added a third dimension.