Cong confident of ‘clear majority’

Despite all exit polls predicting that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would return to power, the Congress put up a brave front on Monday...

Despite all exit polls predicting that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would return to power, the Congress put up a brave front on Monday, claiming that it would get a majority, even if narrow.

While the exit polls have said the Congress will get between 70 and 95 seats —- an impressive improvement over 52 in 2002 —- the party’s election managers say it will get “no less than 95 seats”. The halfway mark is 91 in the House of 182.

“We are heading towards a big, significant, unequivocally clear majority in Gujarat,” said party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi to reporters in the Capital on Monday. Asked about the exit polls predicting otherwise, Singhvi said these surveys were an “exercise of hazard and peril”.

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The party believes even Modi will feel the heat in his Maninagar constituency, winning the seat but with a reduced margin against Union Minister of State for Petroleum Dinsha Patel.

Not disputing the fact that the Chief Minister drew huge crowds, the Congress is pinning its hope on its decentralised and constituency-level campaign strategy as against the BJP’s “centralised” canvassing, spearheaded by Modi. The Congress expects substantial gains in all of Saurashtra, Kutch, South and Central Gujarat areas and marginal improvement in North Gujarat.

The Congress hopes are also based on the belief that it selected candidates after elaborate consideration. “Never before have we spent so much time and given so much thought to deciding candidates. We even consulted BJP rebels,” says Singhvi.

While senior leaders are seized of the fact that urban constituencies witnessed about 62 to 65 per cent voting in the second phase, as against 54 to 58 per cent in rural areas, they claim the voting in the villages has been as per their expectations and will help improve its tally.