The saffron party will be a relieved and rejuvenated brigade in the 2019 ballot battle for Parliament as it knows that the Congress with Rahul at the helm could not do much against the weakest BJP in 2017. Hark, Congressmen! If you plan to celebrate the defeat in the Gujarat assembly election with some statistics and cozy interpretations (BJP 99 and Cong 77*), you know not what you have lost. Gujarat election 2017 was the golden opportunity for the 'improved Congress' under the leadership of young Rahul Gandhi to change the end-result of a decades-old experiment-in-progress in India's Hindutva laboratory. And the Grand Old Party squandered away the chance without achieving anything substantial, thus giving its rival BJP an upper hand in the coming Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
The saffron party will be a relieved and rejuvenated brigade in the 2019 ballot battle for Parliament as it knows that the Congress with Rahul at the helm could not do much against the weakest BJP in 2017.
What Congressmen fail to understand is if they could not wrest Gujarat in 2017, the land of Mahatma is likely to remain a distant dream for them for years to come.
In fact, everything was in favor of Congress this election and the BJP was facing some real trouble in its mega star prime minister Narendra Modi's home turf.
Twenty-two years of anti-incumbency is not an easy task for any party to tide over in any ballot battle in India. Much to its chagrin, BJP's two chief ministers in Gujarat after Narendra Modi – Anandiben Patel and Vijay Rupani – were not able to live up to the expectations of Gujaratis. Both of them also had the uphill task of matching the performance of the party's super star Modi, who brought Narmada waters to a parched Gujarat and built roads and other infrastructure with lightning speed during his tenure.
Still, the Congress failed to cash in on this and convert the people's anger against the ruling party into votes. Gujaratis, with a large number of them being businessmen, were not very happy with the way the Centre rolled out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regimen and the plight of farmers under the NDA rule was no better in the state. The GST-effect was visible in the business community-dominated Saurashtra, where the Congress reaped some dividend.
Still, the Congress was unsuccessful in scoring the winning goal into a goalpost with a weak keeper.
It seems, the Congress's move to rope in Patidar leader Hardik Patel did not deliver the desired result.
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Lotus blooms
Prime minister Narendra Modi flashes victory sign after BJPs success in Himachal and Gujarat assembly elections, on his arrival for the winter session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Monday. PTI
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Lotus blooms
BJP president Amit Shah flashes victory sign as he is accorded warm welcome on his arrival at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Monday, after the party's victory in the Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. PTI
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Lotus blooms
Party workers and supporters celebrate their success in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, in New Delhi on Monday. PTI
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Lotus blooms
BJP Mahila Morcha workers celebrating party's success in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections in Bhopal on Monday. PTI
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Lotus blooms
Congress party supporters celebrate after a party candidate's win in the Assembly elections, outside the Gujarat College counting centre in Amedabad on Monday. PTI
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Lotus blooms
NDA supporters celebrate success in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections 2017, in Patna on Monday. PTI
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Lotus blooms
Party workers celebrating BJPs success in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, outside the BJP headquarter, in New Delhi on Monday. PTI
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Lotus blooms
Party workers and supporters celebrating BJP's success in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh state assembly elections, outside the BJP headquarter in New Delhi on Monday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
Voters showing their voter ID cards at a polling booth during Gujarat Assembly election in Surat on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi meets people during a public meeting in Gujarat's Anand on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
Voters from Sant Swaminarayn Gurukul showing their voter ID cards at a polling booth during Gujarat Assembly election in Surat on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
Senior citizen coming out after casting their vote during the first phase of Gujarat Assembly election in Rajkot on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
An elderly woman voter being helped by security-men at a polling booth during Gujarat Assembly election in Surat on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
Indian cricket player Cheteshwer Pujara shows his ink-marked finger after casting his vote in the first phase of Gujarat Assembly election in Rajkot on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi greets party supporters in Limbasi village of Kheda district in Gujarat on Friday to campaign for the Assembly elections. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
A BJP leader felicitates prime minister Narendra Modi during his election campaign rally for Assembly election in Lunawada town of Panchmahal district of Gujarat on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani with his wife Anjali Rupani shows their ink-marked fingers after casting their vote during the first phase of Gujarat Assembly election in Rajkot on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
Congress leader Arjun Modhwadiya shows his inked finger after casting vote in a polling booth in Porbandar, GUjarat, on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
Voters showing their inked finger at a polling booth during Gujarat Assembly election in Surat on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
Muslim voters showing their inked fingers at a polling booth during Gujarat assembly election in Surat on Saturday. PTI
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Battle for Gujarat
115-years-old Ajiben arrives to cast her vote in the first phase of Gujarat Assembly election in Rajkot on Saturday. PTI
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In fact, the 2017 formula of KHAMP (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim-Patel) may have upset the traditional time-tested vote bank of Congress's KHAM (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim) in a reverse vote consolidation. On hindsight, Hardik's entry into the fold may not have been a welcome step for the KHAM voters. That may be the reason for the opposition party's poor show in North Gujarat where Hardik Patel claims to wield some clout.
Again, Congress should be the last party to call Modi names. Because it knows what happened in 2007 after its leader Sonia Gandhi called Modi 'Maut ka Saudagar.' However, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar forgot this lesson and took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling him a 'Neech aadmi.' The saffron brigade was quick to latch on to this and make use of it in election rallies.
With Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh under its belt now, the BJP will not have any hesitation in going full throttle for its original agenda of Uniform Civil Code and Ram temple at Ayodhya after the 2019 polls and the Congress will have to look for new strategies to stop the juggernaut. The Gujarat election result is nothing to cheer for the Congress but to rue over lost chance.
(*Election Commission has not announced final results in several constituencies till filing of this report)
Read: Assembly elections | Not Rahul, blame me for party's defeat: Virbhadra after Himachal debacle
