New Delhi: The Congress is trying to project the coming assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh as a fight between the BJP and the grand old party while discounting the presence of a third front in the form of AAP.
“Parties like AAP woo the voters with promises and then forget about them. They are like tourists and will go back after the polls. Our main fight is with the BJP, which has not done anything over the past five years,” AICC Secretary in charge of Himachal Pradesh Tajinder Pal Singh Bittu told ETV Bharat.
“The AAP is in Gujarat as the B team of BJP to divide opposition votes. There is no third front. The main contest is between Congress and BJP,” AICC in-charge of Gujarat Raghu Sharma said. In the previous 2017 assembly polls, there was no AAP in Gujarat and Himachal but their entry in 2022 has made the contest three-sided. Though the AAP is claiming big support from the locals, the party lacks popular faces and an organizational structure in the two poll-bound states.
Therefore, the AAP has been forced to run its campaigns in the two states in the name of party convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who came to power in 2013 riding on the popularity of the anti-corruption movement started by activist Anna Hazare in 2012 against the then Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government led by PM Manmohan Singh.
The AAP defeated then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who had ruled for 15 years, in 2013 and the UPA was defeated by the BJP in 2014. Though the Congress claims it will win both Gujarat and Himachal, party insiders said the stand to discount the third front is a strategy to retain the slot of the main opposition, in case the results are not favourable.
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The AAP, which eyes the same vote banks as that of the Congress, had dented the grand old party in the Punjab assembly polls this year, and is now hopeful of making gains in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh as well as in the western state of Gujarat.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has been campaigning in both the states aggressively and promising to take his Delhi model, including better government schools, free power up to a limit and local clinics, to the two BJP-ruled states. Over the past few days, he has announced a lot of freebies as well.
The Congress, which has been out of power in Gujarat for 27 years and in Himachal for 5 years, is desperate to stage a comeback. While the Congress is banking on huge anti-incumbency against the BJP in Gujarat, in Himachal the grand old party is highlighting corruption and lack of development under the BJP rule.
However, the grand old party had been suffering from infighting in both the poll-bound states and has lost several leaders to the BJP over the past few years. There is also a concern that the AAP’s push could divide the anti-BJP votes and dent into the Congress support base, which is more or less similar.
In 2017, the Congress had won 77 seats and had come close to the halfway mark of 92 in the 182-member Gujarat assembly. The BJP had won 99. The Congress has lost 14 MLA since then. Yet, the grand old party claims it will outperform the saffron party this time. Rahul Gandhi, who recently welcomed the 10 guarantees announced by the party in Himachal, listed eight promises for Gujarat on Monday.
These include free treatment up to Rs 10 lakh, farm loan waiver up to Rs 3 lakh, Rs 5 per litre subsidy to milk-cooperatives, Rs 4 lakh assistance to 3 lakh families of Covid victims, strict anti-corruption laws and scrutiny of corruption over past 27 years, including jail to guilty, hiring for 5 lakh government jobs and ending contract system within one year of getting elected, additional 5 lakh jobs in 2 year and 10 lakh jobs by 2024, with 5 lakh jobs reserved for women and an unemployment allowance of Rs 2000 per head for the youth.
The promises are being offered as “Rahul’s guarantees” to the voters of Gujarat, which the Congress alleges, is actually lagging in several social welfare indicators. “Gujarat is a state of businesspeople. They have suffered under the BJP rule for 27 years and now want a change. The condition of the poor including the tribals is the same. There are no good roads, schools, and hospitals in the villages,” said Raghu Sharma.
To highlight what the Congress did when it ruled Gujarat, a separate campaign is being run by the local leaders to flag the projects completed earlier. These include key educational institutions like IIMs, cooperatives like Amul and the Narmada Sagar dam.
The guarantees in Himachal include revival of the old pension scheme, free power up to 300 units, 5 lakh jobs, Rs 1500 per woman, Rs 680 crore startup fund, mobile clinics, English-medium schools besides fair prices for fruit growers, buying 10 liter of milk per day from cattle owners and purchasing cow dung from them at Rs 2 per kg.
Noting that the guarantees were to end the woes of the hill state, Rahul had urged the people to read the document carefully and then vote for the development of Himachal Pradesh.
