HVK Archives: Waghela's win will spur defections
Waghela's win will spur defections - The Times of India
Times of India News Service and Agencies
()
9 April 1997
Title : Waghela's win will spur defections
Author : Times of India News Service and Agencies
Publication : The Times of India
Date : April 9, 1997
The victory of chief minister Shankersinh Waghela over his nearest
rival Shankarbhai Chaudhari of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by
a convincing margin of 13,984 votes will have wide political
repercussions in Gujarat. The BJP faces the prospect of further
disintegration in its rank and file.
After a marathon round of counting lasting over 20 hours, the
result for the Radhanpur constituency was announced in the early
hours of Tuesday. Mr Waghela polled 57,569 votes against 43,585
votes polled by Mr Chaudhari while all the other 40 candidates in
the field lost their deposits.
The defeat of the BJP candidate has come as a blow to the Sangh
Parivar, which had vowed to "politically finish a traitor and
back-stabber".
In this battle for political survival by the Rashtriya Janata
Party, (RJP), Mr Waghela subtly countered the BJP Hindutva plank by
not only playing the caste card but also by cornering the nearly
12,000-odd Muslim votes, which in the final analysis, proved
crucial to his victory.
Having toppled two BJP ministries, headed by Keshubhai Patel and
Suresh Mehta, the chief minister, who is described by his admirers
as a one-man army. has not only delivered a severe blow to the BJP
but also proved that Hindutva card has a limited role in electoral
battles in backward regions.
Mr Waghela succeeded in converting the electoral fight into one
between "high castes", represented by the BJP's Patel candidate and
between the "backward communities", including the Thakores, Muslims
and Ahirs. This, said a prominent Congress leader, was clear from
the voting pattern and the margin with which Mr Waghela won.
The Rashtriya Janata Party leaders, who were in a Jubilant mood,
made it clear to The Times of India they would launch a more
aggressive campaign to cut the BJP's hold at the grassroots level
and also to decimate it in the state assembly.
They were optimistic that nearly a dozen BJP legislators,
considered to be fence-sitters, would gradually cross over to the
ruling party in the state.
This would further provide political stability to the six-month-old
Waghela ministry, which had been forced to make many compromises on
political and policy matters under pressure from various groups
supporting the government.
The ruling Mahagujrat Janata Party (MJP) led by Dilip Parikh
(industry minister) will now merge with the Rashtriya Janata Party
led by Mr Waghela following his victory in the by-elections.
Mr Waghela told reporters that the merger will he a mere formality
and will soon take place.
The MJP was the breakaway group of the then ruling BJP government
led by the then chief minister Suresh Mehta. The MJP leader Mr
Parikh had invited Mr Waghela to form the government. Since Mr
Waghela was not an elected member of the state assembly the RJP
could not merge the MJP on technical grounds.
Back
Top
|
