You must ask Delhi why Rahul ji’s Yatra did not include Gujarat: Lone Gujarat Muslim MLA | Political Pulse News,The Indian Express
"Our MLAs who won are strong leaders... Arjun Modhwadia, Tushar Chaudhary, Jignesh Mevani... Earlier, we were 71 and when it came to Bills, BJP pushed them anyway... So it doesn't matter if there are 17 MLAs or 71. The key is the Opposition voice."
KHEDAWALA: This time, the Congress’s vote was split because of the AAP, while the BJP vote remained intact. Those dissatisfied with the BJP voted for the AAP, instead of the Congress. In my seat [Jamalpur-Khadia], the AIMIM too damaged my vote share, taking around 15,000 votes. The AAP outsourced its campaigning to event management people. They don’t have organisation- or booth- level workers. We had all those, our booth management was good and our door-to-door campaigning was also good.
I believe we could not convey our manifesto well. It did not reach the masses, which I believe could be because of some gap at the party management level, as well as the individual candidate level. Our publicity was weak compared to that of the BJP. The party provided us with resources such as leaflets, advertising material, LED vans, etc., two months ahead of the elections, but ultimately it is up to the candidate to utilise these. I accept there was something lacking in the management and arrangement that should have been there from the national level of the party… There was perhaps some communication gap… Rahul ji [Congress MP Rahul Gandhi] was busy with the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which was planned a year ago at the national level. You will have to ask Delhi why his Yatra did not include Gujarat in its route. Perhaps, the party at Delhi level should have considered Gujarat [in its route for the Yatra] and should have focused more here, given that the BJP deployed its national leaders in their campaign. There should have been public addresses by Rahul ji, Priyanka ji [Priyanka Gandhi, general secretary of the Congress], Sonia ji [Sonia Gandhi] and other national-level Congress leaders. That they did not come definitely harmed the Congress [performance in Gujarat]… Right now, our priority is to boost the morale of our party workers who are in a bit of a shock with the result. Our ground-level workers are our strength. They are slapped with false charges, arrested, harassed and yet they continue to be with the party. Losing an election is one issue, but our workers remain with us. The BJP won, but did you see anyone from the general public celebrating this win?
KHEDAWALA: Many who went to the BJP after leaving the Congress lost. Some won. I don’t think that had an impact. An MLA switching a party doesn’t mean the party workers are switching as well. They remain with the Congress.
KHEDAWALA: People did not come out of their homes to vote. Voting was also slowed down. I had lodged the first complaint [on December 5] on this. In one of our booths, the EVM machine had to be changed thrice because it was not working. By the time it had been changed and polling resumed after an hour, many had left without voting. Machines were slow, arrangements like lighting were not proper in the booths, so even the arrangements that should have been made by the Election Commission were not in place. Their staff also worked slowly.
KHEDAWALA: There was a gap in the public outreach somewhere.
Rating: 5