Lack of poll fever unnverves Gujarat parties

Lacklustre would be an understatement to describe the election campaign in south Gujarat. There are no posters, banners or festoons.

Lacklustre would be an understatement to describe the election campaign in south Gujarat. There are no posters, banners or festoons.

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Election fever or the lack of it in this parched region is a fry cry from the surge that was witnessed in the 2002 Assembly elections when charged-up people "voted with a vengeance".

This time, candidates are worried and their workers frustrated. As for voters, indifference perhaps best explains their poor response to the campaign.

In constituency after constituency in south Gujarat, which saw some of the worst post-Godhra violence, there is none of the tamasha that elections are associated with.

Motley crowds gather when the candidates tour their areas in their convoys — the colourful vehicles the only signs that elections are round the corner.

Party workers are trying to read the minds of the electorate to find reasons behind this apathy. Both the BJP and the Congress had hoped poll fever would catch on two weeks ahead of the April 20 election in the state. But that has not happened.

The BJP has reasons for being tense. "Perhaps people are waiting to strike against us," says a BJP worker. But Congress candidate Satyajitsinh Gaekwad attributes the no-show election here this time to the EC's "restrictions".

There is also dissent in both parties that might affect their prospects, a fact that voters are aware of.