The BJP secured a historic victory in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections. The party has won for the 7th consecutive term and has decimated the opposition by making them lose their status as the opposition party.

The party has won a whooping 156 seats of the 182 seat legislative assembly, the highest ever secured by a party till date. This is the first time in the electoral history of Gujarat that the BJP has crossed the majority mark in terms of vote share with 52.5% votes.

The last time that a party got such a huge mandate was when Congress chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki secured 149 seats in 1985 elections that were held against the backdrop of former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assasination.

However, the DMK in its editorial today tried to peddle half-truths claiming that it’s not that big a victory for the BJP.

Let’s counter the claims one by one.

Number 1

The DMK mouthpiece claimed that while the BJP polled only 1,67,07,957 votes there were 3,23,81,808 votes that were polled against the BJP.

But the number quoted as anti-BJP votes by Murasoli is outrightly false and misleading. Here are the real numbers from the Election Commission.

Total votes polled – 3,14,79,134.

BJP – 1,67,07,957

INC – 86,83,966

AAP – 4,112,055

Others – 13,81,739

NOTA – 5,01,202

SP – 92,215

NCP – 76,949

Total non-BJP votes (INC+AAP+SP+NCP+NOTA+Others) – 1,48,48,126

So, the votes polled for BJP is 18.59 lakh votes more than the non-BJP votes combined.

The inability to do even basic addition and subtraction by DMK folks at Murasoli is a testimony to their Dravidian Model of education.

Number 2

Murasoli claimed in its editorial that the BJP was able to win because the party had announced ‘freebies’. The mouthpiece had tried to spin a narrative that the BJP is hypocritical in its stance on ‘freebies’ saying that while the Centre attacks ‘revdi culture’, it is implementing the same to fetch votes in Gujarat.

However, the people of Gujarat were not wooed by freebies but by good governance. The standard of living of a Gujrati has seen improvement without the state having to dole out freebies.

The BJP won 80 out of 98 rural assembly seats with a strike rate of 82 per cent. This is a testimony to the developmental politics and good governance track record of the BJP.

The successful raising of the Sardar Sarovar dam and the fact that water has reached the dry parts of Gujarat through the SAUNI Yojana has led the people of Gujarat to bequeath their trust on the BJP.

The Jyotigram Yojana, commissioned in 2006, has ensured eight hours of electricity supply for irrigation for all of Gujarat’s 18,000 villages and 24×7 uninterrupted domestic power supply at a nominal charge.

The uniterrupted electriciy and water supply has allowed farmers to increase their agricultural productivity thereby an increase in their income. This has led to the BJP sweep the agrarian regions like Saurashtra.

The BJP has also managed to gain the trust and goodwill of the tribal communities by ensuring holistic development of tribal communities through the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana. This has helped the party win 24 out of 40 SC/ST seats in Gujarat.

This is the trackrecord of the consecutive BJP governments in the previous years.

Now, let’s take a look at the visionary manifesto document of the BJP for this election.

• Make Gujarat a $1 trillion economy by maintaining its position in manufacturing, focusing on services and building capacity for new-age industries.
• 1 lakh Government jobs to women.
• Set up two seafood parks in South Gujarat and Saurashtra and build India’s first Blue Economy Industrial corridor around this region.
• Creating anti-radicalization cells to identify and eliminate potential threats, and sleeper cells of the terrorist organizations and anti-India forces.
• Create world-class sports infrastructure to host the 2036 Olympics Games in Gujarat.
• The family card yojana will enable every family to avail benefits of all state government-run welfare schemes.
• Shramik credit cards for labourers with collateral-free loans up to ₹2 Lakhs, Every citizen is to be ensured with a house under AWAS Yojana.
• Develop a Saurashtra Express Highway grid to connect important economic hubs and national highways.
• Spend ₹1 lakh crore under the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana 2.0 for the all-around socio-economic development of tribal.
• 20 lakh new jobs generation in the state.
• The ruling party has assured ₹10,000 crores for farmer infrastructure, ₹25,000 crores for irrigation facilities, two seafood parks in South Gujarat and Saurashtra, etc.

There is a difference between the ‘freebies’ of the ‘Dravidian Model’ and the welfare schemes of the Gujarat Model. The Dravidian Model of freebies is a wasteful expenditure of taxpayer’s money in providing substandard services – the case in point being the free bus for women scheme of the DMK government. Other example of freebie promises include providing ₹1000 for women which is yet to be implemented by the DMK government.

Whereas in the Gujarat Model, welfare schemes are oriented in improving the quality of life for the poor. Be it the free LPG scheme or the Ayushman Bharat scheme, these have resulted in the empowerment of the people.

The Dravidian Model of freebie keeps the poor perpetually poor for want of political gain while the Gujarat Model of welfare ultimately results in the empowerment of the individual and the community.

Number 3

Murasoli claims that this victory for the BJP isn’t a big deal as it it banked on son-of-the-soil strategy and communal politics coupled with freebies.

The son-of-the-soil strategy part may be true but the other two are just humbug. The fact that the state has remained peaceful which was earlier marred by frequent communal riots has made the people of Gujarat trust the BJP in maintaining law and order.

But here is a bitter truth that the DMK will find it difficult to digest. The DMK in 2021 won by a wafer-thin margin of 5.66%. The DMK itself polled only 37.7%. On the other hand, the BJP in Gujarat has polled a whopping 52.5% and has secure victory by a huge margin.

The BJP has managed to win Gujarat back-to-back and this time it has won without any major alliance. History is testimony to the fact that the DMK has never managed to win an election without an alliance with major parties.

So, dear DMK folks at Murasoli, please educate yourself and rotate your cane within the four walls of Arvialayam.

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The post Rejoinder To Murasoli: Jittered By BJP’s Performance, DMK Mouthpiece Peddles Lies About Gujarat Election Results appeared first on The Commune.

The BJP has registered a record-breaking landslide victory in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections. For the first time, the party has won a whooping 156 seats of the 182 seats in the legislative assembly. The party has broken several records in the history of Gujarat by winning for the 7th consecutive term and decimating the opposition parties by making them lose their status as the opposition party.

For the first time, BJP has elevated its performance in the rural areas of Gujarat by almost doubling its tally. There are 98 rural seats and 84 urban seats in the Gujarat assembly. In the 2017 election, Congress performed well in the rural areas by winning 52 seats leaving nearly 40 seats for BJP. But in 2022, BJP wrestled Congress holds by winning 75 rural seats, almost doubling the tally since the last election.

There are various reasons for its significant performance.

The Homecoming Of The Patidars

Patidar Communities account for nearly 20% of Gujarat’s population and this community plays a decisive role in more than 50 seats in Gujarat. In most parts of South Gujarat and Saurashtra, the victory or defeat is decided by Patidars. The community is divided into Leuva Patel (70% of the community) and Kadva Patel (30% of the community). The Saurashtra-Kutch area is completely dominated by Leuva Patel.

In a rural region like the Saurashtra-Kutch region, BJP has doubled the tally from 23 seats in 2017 to 47 seats in 2022, while Congress has been reduced to a mere 3 seats in 2022 from its 30 seats in 2017. This rural vote has contributed to BJP’s victory magnificently. The Congress had won Saurashtra-Kutch’s Patidar-dominated seats of Morbi, Tankara, Dhoraji, and Amreli in 2017. All these areas came to BJP this time.

The major move of the BJP ahead of the 2022 elections was reaching out to Patel community. BJP replaced Vijay Rupani from CM Post with Bhupendra Patel in September 2021 and announced him as CM Candidate for the 2022 election.

BJP brought Hardik Patel, a Patidar quota agitation leader from Congress and fielded him from the Viramgam Assembly seat where he won by a huge margin. Earlier he played a significant role in agitating and leading protests against BJP government before 2017 demanding OBC status for Patidar Community.

Another big move of the BJP which pacified the community was giving a 10% quota in jobs and education to the economically weaker sections who hitherto didn’t have any avenue for state support.

Also, Narendra Modi’s factor and outreach initiatives of BJP lead to a huge swing from Patidars towards BJP. PM Modi did an 18 km road show in Varaccha which has 60% of Patidars votes.

The BJP owes its rise in the state to the Patidars as it is the same Patidar community that brought the BJP to power in Gujarat for the first time in 1995 under Keshubhai Patel.

Vote Split

The Congress has finished second in 118 ACs and third in 39, while the AAP has finished second in 35 and third in 114 seats. Though the vote split is not a key factor behind BJP’s win in Gujarat, it has eroded the Congress’ vote share significantly. The analysis points out that BJP would have won 123 seats if AAP and Congress votes are added at the AC level. The lack of a regional face for Congress is also a major factor in its historic erosion in Gujarat.

Rejection Of Freebies Culture

BJP promised to make Gujarat a $1 trillion economy by maintaining its position in manufacturing, focusing on services and building capacity for new-age industries. BJP promised to set up two seafood parks in South Gujarat and Saurashtra and build India’s first Blue Economy Industrial corridor around this region.

BJP also promised a family card yojana which will enable every family to avail benefits of all state government-run welfare schemes. Shramik credit cards for labourers with collateral-free loans up to ₹2 Lakhs.

BJP has promised to develop a Saurashtra Express Highway grid to provide connectivity with important economic hubs and national highways and also spend ₹1 lakh crore under the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana 2.0 for the all-around socio-economic development of tribals. This holistic development model has led to goodwill among the people of the state. BJP is best known for its track record of fulfilling its promises. All these pro-poor welfare promises served as a hope of ray for the people in rural areas of Gujarat.

For decades, Gujarat reeled under drought-like conditions with women walking miles to fetch a pot of water. But the successful raising of the Sardar Sarovar dam and the subsequent measures taken and the fact that water has reached to the dry parts of Gujarat through the SAUNI Yojana has led the people of Gujarat to bequeath their hopes on the BJP.

The fact that the state has remained peaceful which was earlier marred by frequent communal riots has made the people of Gujarat to trust the BJP in maintaining law and order.

To put in a nut shell, the quality of life of Gujarat people has become better over the years without the state having to dole out freebies.

The opposition parties like AAP announced an array of freebie promises in sectors like education, healthcare, and electricity has fallen flat. If there is one big message that the Gujarat people are sending across the nation is that they can’t be wooed by freebies but only good governance.

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The post Gujarat Elections 2022: What The Results Tell Us appeared first on The Commune.

8 December 2022 will be one of the stupendous days for BJP. The party broke its own previous record best of 149 seats in 1985. The vote share shows that the people of Gujarat have showered enormous love and affection on Narendra Modi. They took personal pride in sending their lovable Chief Minister to the center as Prime Minister. Everyone saw Modi as a member of their family and not as just some politician. Such is the connect that Modi enjoys with the Gujaratis and the people from other states that have made Gujarat their home.

Every single exit poll showed BJP winning effortlessly. The well-known anti-Modi journalists were smiling in front of TV cameras when they were announcing the results of the exit polls in their respective channels but they must have had a really hard day digesting this fact.

It was hilarious to see some TV channels from Tamil Nadu going to some parts of Gujarat and interview the Tamil people there. The unanimous answer they got from almost every person they met left them red faced. They could just hear everyone saying that they are very happy with Modi and will vote for BJP.

Their frustration was evident in their anger on the Congress which didn’t even try to put up a fight. Rahul Gandhi chose not to walk much in Gujarat. They took some solace in Kejriwal by attempting to show AAP as the new challenger for BJP.

That also didn’t work as AAP turned out to be a damp squib after so much of media hype in the last month. They had to somehow dent the BJP success story. The Himachal Pradesh results came as a big relief for them. They now could at least say that the Modi factor didn’t work in there and that is the formula to defeat Modi and Modi is not invincible. One has to be really intelligent when one is strategizing against Modi. Otherwise, they will end up being a laughing stock.

Priyanka Gandhi got a lot of credit, obviously, for the Himachal Pradesh victory and some Congress leaders heaped praise. One has to be generous and let them take this credit which was really hard coming, given the dismal performance in Gujarat and Rahul Gandhi’s aimless walkathon that left everyone confused.

BJP could have done a better job in Himachal. Congress finally got one narrative right against BJP around going back to old pension scheme that was noticed by the people. It is another debate whether this is feasible and can be really implemented or not.

Himachal Pradesh loss is a blessing in disguise for BJP as that is going to help them attack the Congress strongly during the 2024 elections.

Anti-Modi journalists also got a shock when BJP didn’t do that badly in the MCD elections in Delhi as they expected. Nevertheless, BJP has to acknowledge the fact that they have to buck up in Delhi. They have to quickly decide on a CM face if they are looking for any chance to wrest Delhi from AAP in the next Assembly elections and give time for that face to register with the public.

Coming back to Gujarat, it was a once in a lifetime performance by Narendra Modi. It was very clear that people of Gujarat voted for him and only him and none other. They clearly rejected the freebies that AAP was offering in the form of free electricity etc. The BJP should take thorough advantage of this excellent gesture of the Gujarat voters and make it an example in the whole of India. Every state in India should do what Gujarat voters did as they believed in hard work and self-respect. They don’t want any party to give anything free to them. They just want an honest and genuine effort towards development and they have seen this in Modi-led BJP. Gujarat election has shown how 2024 election results are going to look like. The trend has been set. India will vote the Gujarat style in 2024. The opposition is in disarray and BJP will again break its prior records in the next Lok Sabha elections and Narendra Modi will sign off his career in style as the most successful Prime Minister that India ever had since Independence.

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