look news india
Amid the scorching heat, today Gujarat's 4.9 crore voters will decide the fate of 266 candidates who are in the fray for the remaining 25 Lok Sabha seats and five assembly seats in Gujarat.
Overnight, the Surat Lok Sabha seat was declared unopposed, with the Election Commission rejecting the nomination of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani saying fake signatures were alleged on his proposals, and the remaining candidates withdrawing their forms. Later, Surat Lok Sabha seat was declared unopposed.
Now today even Kshatriyas can vote against BJP. On March 22, BJP candidate and Union Minister Parshottam Rupala's remarks about the Kshatriya community angered the entire community and protests broke out across the state, disrupting BJP rallies and threatening to boycott the BJP. . No entry boards were pasted in every village for BJP candidates.
As the Chomar protests intensified, veterans like former Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala, former Union Minister Vallabh Kathiriya and former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani came forward to campaign for BJP candidate Parshottam Rupala, who hails from the Patidar community. Congress has fielded Paresh Dhanani from Leuva Patidar community against Parshottam Rupala. Senior BJP leaders estimate that if Kshatriyas take their anger to the booth, the party may lose its lead on at least five seats.
After declaring its candidate for the first time on the basis of record performance in December 2022, the ruling BJP in Gujarat had to make changes. Due to internal opposition, BJP changed its candidates in Vadodara and Sambarkantha. In Vadodara, sitting MP Ranjan Bhatt was replaced by first-time MP Hemang Joshi, while first-time MP Shobhana Baraiya was replaced by Sabarkantha's Bhikhaji Thakor.
This time the challenge for BJP is to repeat the performance of 2024 and 2019. In the last two Lok Sabha elections, BJP had captured all 26 seats. This time BJP had set a target of winning all the 26 Lok Sabha seats of Gujarat with a lead of more than 5 lakhs.
Congress became weak
Reduced to its lowest tally in the state assembly, the Congress is contesting 23 parliamentary seats and hopes to take advantage of the Kshatriya anger against the BJP. The Congress also faced its own differences when Congress national spokesperson Rohan Gupta suddenly withdrew from the election from Ahmedabad East and joined the BJP.
Congress currently has 14 MLAs left and five of them are contesting the Lok Sabha elections. They are Tushar Chaudhary (Sabarkantha), Amit Chavda (Anand), Anant Patel (Valsad), Ganiben Thakor (Banaskantha), and Gulab Singh Chauhan (Panchmahal). The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which won five seats in the Gujarat Assembly elections, has fielded two of its MLAs Chaitra Vasava and Umesh Makwana to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Bharuch and Bhavnagar.
While BJP is fighting the elections on the image of Modi, the opposition has played the role of 'protector of the Constitution' and has attacked BJP with the slogan 'This time, 400 crossed' and called it 'protector of the Constitution'. “Want to gain majority. Amend the Constitution.”