AScionrises Rahul Gandhi seems to have overnight got back his mojo ahead of a thrilling encounter in Gujarat
Amidst a strong buzz that a change of guard in the grand old party could happen anytime soon, Rahul Gandhi seems to have got back his mojo ahead of crucial state elections which are seen as indicators for the times to come.
While Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi’s twitter handle @OfficeofRG has taken many by storm, the BJP is not letting its guard down in Gujarat given this is a state that is a battle of prestige for the BJP.
Expert opinion largely is that the mandate in Gujarat will set the tone for the national elections in 2019.
Gandhi scion Rahul has gained much traction on social media over his tongue-in-cheek tweets and sharp public speeches. His leadership however is yet to be tested in the upcoming Gujarat elections.
There has been a sudden resurgence of the Congress in the politically crucial state of Gujarat after 22 years.
Gandhi has directly trained his guns on PM Modi by raising issues of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the Gujarat campaign. Meanwhile, Modi has pitched the December elections as a contest between dynasty and development.
Interestingly the war seems to be between Rahul versus Modi.
Given reports of ill health of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul has led the charge in the grand old party in the past few months.
The party is fighting the November 9 elections in Himachal Pradesh under six-time CM Virbhadra Singh.
Congress is confident that the party is on the road to revival referring to Rahul’s speeches in the United States, especially his interaction with students of University of California, Berkeley.
Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, face one of their toughest electoral battles as they seek to protect their home turf from a resurgent opposition.
Shaken up by the sudden mojo of Rahul Gandhi, Modi has announced projects worth over Rs 20,000 crore, not counting Rs 1.1 lakh crore Ahmedabad – Mumbai high speed rail, the foundation stone for which was laid on September 14. There has also been the Sardar Sarovar dam project dedicated to the nation and the first phase of the Rs 615 crore roll-on, roll-off ferry service between Ghogha and Dahej.
Anti-incumbency will play a part given BJP has been in power in the state for 22 years (since 1995). And now there is the discontent over demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
A new opposition led by youthful leaders like Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakore and Jignesh Mevani — is giving state BJP leaders sleepless nights. 65 per cent of the Gujarat’s 43.2 million electorate is under 35. The troika from Patidar, OBC Kshatriya and Dalit communities has not just captured imagination of the youth, but has also thrown in its lot with the Congress.
Rahul Gandhi off late has seen impressive crowds in central Gujarat and Saurashtra.
BJP meanwhile sticks to its carpet bombing approach.
For Congress, a fourth consecutive loss will only add to its declining fortunes.
Winning. Congress is cleverly playing up the bogey of autocratic rule, propping up caste equations, even playing the soft Hindutva card.
BJP has a 48 per cent vote share and the Congress 38 per cent, the three new leaders in the mix could play a crucial role in swing seats.
BJP believes Modi effect will get it past the post. Modi’s rallies and yatras are getting massive response.
The BJP and Amit Shah 150-seat target is based on sound logic. The party led in 165 of the 182 assembly segments in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and it swept all 26 seats.
A network of party expanders handle each of the 48,000 booths in the state. BJP is reportedly planning to offer a ticket to former Gujarat encounter cop DG Vanzara.
In six months since Congress launched the Gujarat campaign, it has focused purely on winning the elections.
Experts largely believe combination of agrarian stress and Hardik-led movement could dent the BJP’s Patel votebank that swept it to power in 1995. The grand old party’s 1980 startegy of winning Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslims for now has taken a back seat.
Congress will be banking on the over 26 per cent OBC Kshatriya votes in the state. The Congress also hopes to gain the support of the state’s 7 per cent Dalit population.
The real challenge for Congress is to woo urban voters. In Gujarat, with 42 per cent urban population, BJP has a stranglehold on 110 urban and semi-urban seats. Issues like water, electricity, and the struggles of farmers or tribals don’t exist in the cities.
In recent times Indian National Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has upped his social media game. @OfficeOfRG has been far more active than ever before. Gandhi has managed to amass over a million new followers in less than two months.
This comes with the charge from the ruling that many of Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter followers are fake. The hashtag #RahulBotAttack has been trending online.
Modi joined Twitter in 2009, while Rahul Gandhi joined Twitter about six years later in 2015, and has amped up his activity only even more recently.
Rahul Gandhi has returned energised; his speeches today have the spark, while he’s already becoming a darling of the social media.
Attacks coming from the rahul Gandhi stable are now much more nuanced, cultured, intelligent and, hence, more effective.
On Twitter, the @OfficeOfRG handle has been on a roll, sending out a series of witty and clever tweets, puns and pop culture references to taunt the BJP, RSS and the Narendra Modi government.
As per Rahul, Congress had conceived of a “Genuine Simple Tax”, while the BJP came up with a “Gabbar Singh Tax”, using both abbreviation wordplay and Bollywood references. The tweet has been retweeted 14,000 times already, and has been liked 31,000 times.
He did not miss a chance to use the famous Star wars lines May the Force be with you.
To target Arun Jaitley, Rahul said, “Aap kisi se kum nahi, lekin aap ke dawa me dum nahi”. This too was retweeted nearly 10,000 times.
Rahul now gets nearly 4,000 average retweets. Some of his more popular tweets — like the ones on GST and Jay Amit Shah — got more than 10,000.
Out of the 182 members in Gujarat assembly, BJP had won 115 seats, while the Congress failed to dethrone the saffron party and managed to secure only 61 seats.
Elections to the 14th Gujarat Assembly are significant for several reasons. Gujarat is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, which supported his elevation by giving his party, the BJP, a clean sweep of its 26 Lok Sabha seats.
The year 1995 was the last time there was a Congress government in the state, that’s 22 years ago.
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