New Delhi: With the entry of the new player Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Gujarat assembly polls 2022, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been bracing for a triangular contest in some seats. The saffron party has been treading cautiously considering the fact that every vote counts in such multi-lateral contests.
Besides, giving no chance to complacency, the BJP has been conducting internal surveys on different factors. One of these survey reports indicated that the saffron party may suffer a loss of 19 seats if the AAP makes a dent in its vote share, source said.
If the AAP secures a sizeable number of votes in these nineteen seats, then it will greatly upset BJP. Hence, the BJP top brass is busy formulating strategies to contain the AAP factor in these 19 seats. The internal surveys in the saffron camp are mainly targetted at gauging the voter mood in these segments and how to confront the AAP onslaught.
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As per their analysis, if the AAP gets more than ten percent votes in a seat, then the BJP candidate may lose the election by a big margin. In the previous Gujarat assembly polls, the BJP had secured 99 seats while Congress bagged 77 seats. Now, the BJP is faced with the challenge of protecting its vote share. The saffron party cannot afford losing even four percent vote share to rivals, especially AAP.
The BJP's internal survey findings also indicated that if the AAP secures up to eight percent vote in these 19 seats, then the Congress party will suffer a loss. Suppose the AAP bags ten percent or more votes, then BJP will be at the receiving end. Although the BJP's internal survey report also hinted that this loss can be compensated by the expected loss that may be suffered by the Congress as well in some of its sitting seats.
The saffron party's internal survey also warned that one-third of Gujarat voters who are forty years of age and below have been seeking change, sources said. So the BJP has also been trying to prevent these voters from shifting towards the AAP or Congress. How much vote share will go into the AAP's kitty, only time will tell. As per one estimate, anti-incumbency is working in some seats and in others, the AAP is trying to eat into BJP's vote bank. Accordingly, the BJP leaders are forming strategies.
One BJP national spokesperson, who has been camping in Gujarat and closely monitoring the situation there, on condition of anonymity, said, "Compared to the presence of other political parties in Gujarat, BJP has been enjoying a very good image in the state for working towards development."
"The development work in Gujarat kickstarted when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state and the process still is continuing. The double engine government at the Centre and in Gujarat has further added progression to the development work. Hence, the people of Gujarat don't want to experiment with new entrants or parties like AAP in Gujarat," he concluded.
