Gujarat polls: Hardik-Congress ties in jeopardy over just 2 tickets for PAAS

New Delhi: The election deal struck between Congress and the Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) almost came undone on Monday as the Patidars refused to accept just two seats offered to its members in the Congress’ 77-member first list for Gujarat released on Sunday.

On Monday, the Congress released its second list of 9 candidates, taking the total number of names announced to 86. The party has replaced four candidates from its first list announced on Sunday.

An upset Mr Patel cancelled a rally he was scheduled to address on Monday in Gujarat’s Rajkot to announce the pact with the Congress as the crisis over the electoral tie-up intensified and angry members of PAAS vandalised Congress offices and clashed with its workers in Ahmedabad and other areas.

Earlier, both Mr Patel and the Congress state leadership rushed in for damage control, holding fresh rounds of meetings in which more seats were discussed for PAAS members.

Meanwhile, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, which was not given even a single seat by the Congress in its first list, said that it will go alone in the Assembly polls scheduled to be held on December 9 and December 14.

On Monday, many PAAS supporters indulged in violence and clashed with Congress members at various places in the state. Differences also emerged within the PAAS ranks as one of its leaders, Lalit Vasoya, filed his nomination papers as a Congress candidate ignoring PAAS convenor Dinesh Bambhaniya’s statement that no one from the organisation will do so in protest over the raw deal offered by the Congress. Tuesday is the last day for filing nominations for the first phase of Gujarat poll.

Mr Patel, on his part, appealed to his supporters to let him talk to the Congress.  In Ahmedabad, Mr Bambhaniya along with his supporters created ruckus at the house of state Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki.

“The Congress has given tickets to two of our members without taking us into confidence. Other Patel candidates whom they have selected are bogus. We will hold a massive protest against the Congress,” another PAAS convener, Alpesh Kathiria, said.

The Congress had named Patidars in its first list, apart from eight OBCs, 12 Kolis and seven dalits.

Trouble brewed between the NCP and the Congress too with the former saying that it will contest all the 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly elections.

The NCP has two MLAs in the current Assembly. The Congress named its own candidate even from the Kutiyana constituency in Porbandar district which has NCP’s Kandhal Jadeja as the sitting MLA.  

“I think it would be better for us to fight on all the seats on our own than in an alliance with the Congress,” senior NCP leader and former Union minister Praful Patel said.

Ashok Gehlot, Congress general secretary in-charge of Gujarat,  said that the alliance broke down because of the NCP’s demand for more seats than it should have in the prevalent situation in the poll-bound state. “The seat-sharing alliance would have been possible only if they had made limited demands,” he said.