‘Caste factor, govt pressure’: Stung by Vav defeat, Congress searches for answers

According to Geniben Thakor, whose exit from the Assembly spot pursuing her predetermination to the Lok Sabha necessitated the by-election, caste
became a large factor.

The aforesaid Geniben had defeated BJP strongman and co-operative person Shankar Chaudhary from this spot successful 2017 to gain the estimation of a “giant-slayer”. Chaudhary is the talker of the Gujarat Assembly.

“Caste origin played a large role. As per our analysis, Mavji Patel (A Chaudhary-Patel) contesting independently was expected to get astir 35,000 to 40,000 votes. But successful the past four-five days earlier the election, our consciousness of the voters revealed that Chaudhary voters decided to enactment with the BJP arsenic they realised that Mavjibhai volition not win. The cognition among them was that voting for Mavjibhai volition lone displease Shankar Chaudhary, Parbatbhai Patel arsenic good arsenic the party. So, they thought what was the constituent of voting for him if helium was not going to win,” Geniben told The Indian Express.

The enactment besides blames “government pressure” for the “turnaround” successful the crushed concern successful the past three-four days earlier the votes were polled.

Rajput mislaid to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Thakor with a borderline of conscionable 2,442 votes. Vav was the lone spot successful Gujarat that went for bypoll aft Congress MLA Geniben was elected to the Parliament earlier this year.

As per the voting investigation done by the party, astir 20,000 votes of the Chaudhary assemblage were diverted to Swarupji Thakor.

BJP rebel campaigner and erstwhile MLA Mavjibhai Patel, who belonged to the influential Chaudhary-Patel community, decided to contention independently erstwhile helium was denied a summons by the ruling party. He got 27,195 votes, securing the 3rd position.

Out of a full 3.10 lakh votes polled successful Vav constituency, astir 83,000 were Thakor votes and astir 50,000 Chaudhary votes.

Adding to the caste factor, Rajput told The Indian Express that the “government” unit played its relation successful the Vav by-election. “With the full authorities machinery enactment into Vav bypoll, determination was surely unit mounted connected the voters.”

From Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel to authorities enactment president C R Paatil on with elder ministers, the BJP had campaigned hard for this seat.

Geniben said that the Congress campaigner fought against the ruling government. “Against the full authorities machinery, it was conscionable the 2 of america (Rajput and I) contesting this election. But we are satisfied that though we lost, successful a mode we did not. We received a batch of votes and with this bladed margin, this is the archetypal clip we person felt that the Congress tin triumph against the BJP.”

Analysis besides revealed that the nonaccomplishment successful Bhabhar taluka had deed the Congress candidate, Rajput, the hardest. “While we person a pb of 10,000 votes successful Vav and astir 4,000 successful Suigam taluka, Bhabhar went into a nonaccomplishment of 16,000 votes,” Rajput told The Indian Express.

Geniben, too, admitted that Bhabhar was the game-changer arsenic it helped Swarupji Thakor get the “local benefit”. She said, “There is not a azygous Rajput ballot that we were not alert about. But, we did not expect the Thakor votes to plaything to specified a large extent,” she added.

The caste-wise ballot estimates successful the 3 talukas shared by experts revealed that Vav and Suigam talukas combined person astir 40,000 Chaudhary votes and astir 30,000 Thakor votes. Similarly, successful Bhabhar taluka alone, determination are astir 9,000 Chaudhary votes and 53,000 Thakor votes.

“In Bhabhar taluka, portion the BJP campaigner got 37,000 votes and Mavjibhai 9,000, we received 19,000 votes. Thus, the BJP campaigner from Thakor assemblage and caste origin came into play arsenic the community’s votes went to him,” Rajput further said connected voting stock analysis.