New Delhi: Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will campaign for party candidates in Gujarat’s Patan and Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur seats on April 29 where the grand old party is hopeful of reversing the 2019 trend, pinning hopes on the wave of anger in Rajput community against BJP leader and Union Minister Parshottam Rupala after his controversial remarks.
“Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in Patan on April 29,” Gujarat Congress chief Shakti Sinh Gohil told ETV Bharat. In Patan, Congress candidate Chandanji Thakor is pitted against BJP’s sitting MP Bharatsinghji Dabhi. In the previous 2019 national polls, the BJP had won all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat.
The former party’s chief’s visit comes at a time when the grand old party hopes to benefit from the widespread anger among the Rajput community against the BJP. “The Rajputs may be just 4-5 percent of the population but are considered influential. They are totally against the BJP and repeated apologies made by their leader Parshottam Rupala are proving to be ineffective. Initially, the state government banned protests in Ahmedabad, where community members planned to wear black bands on their arms. Later, they wore saffron bands and continued their protest to escape the ban,” Congress Working Committee member Jagdish Thakor told ETV Bharat.
The anger started after BJP’s Rajkot candidate Rupala made some controversial remarks against the Rajputs, but since then he has had to apologise twice as the community protests spread across the state over the past week. In Rajkot, several Rajput groups welcomed Congress nominee Paresh Dhanani by making him ride a horse, while in several other seats the community members have pledged to vote against the saffron party.
According to state unit in charge Gohil, “Not only the Rajputs, but several other communities are angry with the BJP and will teach the ruling party a lesson this time.” The BJP recently won the Surat seat, where Congress nominee’s papers were rejected and four independents withdrew. The Congress has suspended its nominee Nilesh Kumbhani, who is supposed to be hand in glove with the BJP.
In Chhattisgarh, the Congress could win just 2 seats against 9 of BJP out of the total 11 seats in 2019 and is trying hard to reverse the trend under AICC in charge Sachin Pilot. “The polling so far has been encouraging. We are going to reverse the 2019 trend. The voters are angry with the BJP. Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in Bilaspur on April 29. We hope it will boost our campaign,” Chhattisgarh Congress chief Deepak Baij told ETV Bharat.
In Bilaspur, the Congress has fielded sitting MLA Devender Yadav who is fighting against BJP’s Tokhan Sahu. The seat has been a BJP stronghold and the Congress performance in the last year’s state polls was not up to the mark, yet the grand old party is hopeful of making significant gains this time based on its social welfare agenda. “The promise of jobs and bringing down prices is clicking with people. They have seen the difference in the previous Congress and current BJP government and have realized the loss of existing social welfare benefits. They will vote for a change this time,” said Baij.
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