Amit Shah's debut forces Cong to rework LS poll strategy

Ahmedabad: With announcement of party president Mr. Amit Shah contesting from Gandhinagar, replacing party veteran L.K. Advani, all eyes are on Gujarat now. While state unite of the BJP is ready to take advantage of Mr. Shah’s nomination from the state, the Congress is re-working on its strategy to counter the move. The Congress has already announced four candidates for Gujarat and is expected to announce names for remaining 22 seats anytime from now.

According to senior party leader, the Congress is planning to create the momentum like 2017 assembly election to counter the BJP’s “nationalism narrative”. State party leadership is planning the campaign in the same way. This time, the party is hopeful of Ms Priyanka Gandhi’s visit to attract women voters.

The induction of patidar leader Hardik Patel was a step in that direction only. “Hardik factor had helped us in the assembly election. Now he is with the party so we are hoping to get full support from his team-PAAS. We will raise same issues of farmer’s distress and unemployment. The temple visits will also be a part of the campaign,” said a party leader with smile.

It is learnt that the party has identified eleven parliamentary constituencies on the basis of the result of 2017 assembly election. Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Surendranagar, Junagadh, Amreli and Anand are the eight seats where the party is leading in votes in assembly segments. Compared to 2014 Lok Sabha election, Jamnagar, Bharuch and Porbandar are another three seats where it is trailing the BJP with margin of less than 20000 votes as per assembly results.

For example, if Hardik Patel contests from Jamnagar, the Congress can hope to get patidar votes in entire Saurashtra region.

In Amreli constituency, the party has five MLAs out of seven assembly segments. Anand seat of central Gujarat has been remained with the party, except in 2014, and this time with the nomination of former state president Mr. Bharat Solanki, it is hoping to get the fortress back. In short, party will focus more on those seats where it has a chance to win. It is not hoping much from urban constituencies where the BJP still dominates.   

Party leaders believe that the party is in a position to win at least these eight seats and can give tough fight on other three seats, if they are able to create same political atmosphere like they had created in December 2017.  

‘We are fighting on all 26 seats including Gandhinagar, where Mr. Amit Shah is contesting, with same spirit. We will get maximum seats from Gujarat this time.’ State party spokesperson Dr. Manish Doshi said.