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The hurly-burly?s done
As helicopters touched down, the motorised chariots screeched to a halt and candidates switched off megaphones, a silence enveloped Gujarat with the end of poll campaign.
As the helicopters touched down, the motorised chariots screeched to a halt and candidates switched off their megaphones, a silence enveloped Gujarat. The campaign that was a psephologist's nightmare came to a close on Tuesday, awaiting polling on December 12 in Gujarat.
It was a contest that often saw reason losing out to emotion, hope to fear and history to mythology. It remains to be seen whether wisdom will triumph over hate and xenophobia.
In retrospect, the campaign in Gujarat wasn't equal. Nor was it fair even in intra-party terms. The BJP's biggest leaders — Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy L.K. Advani — were dwarfed into insignificance as Chief Minister Narendra Modi's Gaurav Yatra rolled. In all, Modi addressed 250 meetings and rallies, 163 of which were during the yatra.
In not letting the people forget Godhra, Modi and his Sangh Parivar allies defied the Election Commission's directives and Vajpayee's counsel for restraint.
The Congress's only match to the Modi blitzkrieg, a high point of which was the Chief Minister’s following among the youth, was state Congress chief Shankersinh Vaghela.
Barring Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, who campaigned well in the tribal areas, the Congress's line-up of chief ministers, was impressive only on paper.
None of them was conversant with the Gujarati idiom, which the likes of Modi and the VHP leader Praveen Togadia so effectively used.
Vaghela's challenge got a boost only after Congress president Sonia Gandhi's arrival on the scene. The crowds at her public meetings were substantial. Her appeal of a "vote for development, against destruction" carried conviction in the BJP's water-and-electricity-starved Patel-fortress that showed signs of crumbling.
The BJP's decision to invite BSP leader Mayawati to Gujarat was a recognition, in the context of the 8 per cent Dalit vote, that the Congress's caste card was fetching dividends, though Vaghela's post-campaign claim of a two-thirds majority might be exaggerated.
The Congress is expected to improve its tally in the Patel strongholds — Saurashtra, and north Gujarat — where Muslims are in a position to turn the tide.
Collectively, these regions account for 90 seats, of which the Opposition had only 10 in the dissolved House. But the party seems to have slipped in central Gujarat and the north.
