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Showing posts from October, 2017

Congress On The Upswing In Gujarat But ...

BY R.K.MISRA Political tempers are rising in Gujarat in the run up to the state Assembly polls slated for December this year.  On the one hand, the ruling BJP, which is facing anti-incumbency, finds itself on the back foot. On the other hand, the opposition Congress finds itself oscillating between enthusiasm and euphoria. While the first motivates one to perform better, the other leads to a false sense of complacency. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has visited Gujarat five times in recent times. In the context of the situation mentioned above, he could do with a closer look at the cause and affect factors that are making this contest a slugfest. The Congress had long been in the dumps after chief minister Narendra Modi pushed it into virtual obsolescence through the three Vidhan Sabha elections during his tenure. However, the Congress mood is now on the upswing after the last  Rajya Sabha election in the state. The contest saw old horse Shankersinh Vaghela  r

Haughty Hunters Turn Hunted In Viral War

BY R.K.MISRA Political fortunes wax and wane like the moon. The heady hunter of 2012 and 2014 is the hamstrung  hunted of 2017 . How times change. Time was when chief minister Narendra Modi had  the nation in thrall as  he used social media to build public opinion and deliver a devastating blow to his political opponents in the run-up to the 2012 Gujarat Vidhan Sabha elections and the 2014 general elections in the country. He swept both. Switch to 2017.Five years later. Again, the run-up to the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha elections of 2017. The BJP is at the receiving end of a devastating social media campaign that has the rulers of Gujarat and India fumbling for an answer. The way the campaign has gone viral indicates that it was born out of the harassed commoners travails and is a reaction to the glib talking of the party and governments in power in Gujarat and the Centre. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s man Friday , BJP president, Amit Shah seemed nervy when in  Ahmedaba

Gujarat : BJP Boxed , Congress Climbing

BY R.K.MISRA   Perceptions propel politics .  And the perception of the Gujarat Rajya Sabha election which concluded on August 8 is that the brute might of the BJP-government and party working in tandem-has been busted by the sheer grit of Ahmed Patel and the Gujarat Congress. Call it a conspiracy of colluding factors or just happenstance, but the BJP juggernaut in Gujarat has been steadily going downhill ever since, while the Congress graph is on the upswing. One needs to finely go through the sequence of events leading to the victory of Patel if events that followed are to be viewed in proper perspective. A morale booster it surely has been  for a Congress wracked  by a battlefield desertion and key elements walking into the rival camp. But an election victory is never complete in an era of poor losers. The renegade Congressman turned BJP candidate, Balwantsinh Rajput has challenged the decision of the Election Commission in the Gujarat High Court but the judicial syste