Day after: BJP calculates, Cong relaxes

Call it the lull after the storm. Days of hectic campaigning over, the main political parties — both the BJP and the Congress — se...

Call it the lull after the storm. Days of hectic campaigning over, the main political parties — both the BJP and the Congress — settled down to an unsettling wait for the weekend. As the bigwigs left town, BJP members busied themselves in mental arithmetic while the Congress camp was in holiday mood.

With the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) having declared a holiday for its staff, visitors and mediamen at the makeshift party office were greeted by a locked door. But some rooms on the first floor of the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan housing the GPCC office were open.

Cong junks exit polls

New Delhi: Stung by the exit polls which showed the door to the Congress in Gujarat, the party on Friday put up a brave face and claimed it would sail through with a comfortable majority.

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Blasting the pollsters, Congress spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi wondered when the exit polls had proved right the last time.

‘‘One has to look at previous outcomes in Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to see how they are never close to the actual results,’’ he pointed out. — ENS

However, the hectic goings-on of the past fortnight were missing and everything was humdrum. There were no crowds seeking appointment with top leaders like Kamal Nath. There were no phone calls for election control room in-charge C.M. Rajput who didn’t find time to go home for a bath. Half a dozen phone instruments and mobile phones also fell silent.

State Congress vice-president Hasmukh Patel and a couple of party spokesmen occupied the electronic media control room. Following an unwritten code of conduct on showing optimism in the poll results under any circumstances, the inmates, including some mediapersons, expressed confidence on the Congress sweeping the polls and rubbished the post-poll surveys which have predicted a BJP victory.

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At the other end of the political spectrum, the mood in the saffron camp was ‘‘mathematical’’. Party managers busied themselves in calculating as to how many seats they would win.

Media incharge Shashiranjan Yadav said: ‘‘Modi’s popularity among the women, and the youth, helped fetch a large voter turnout.’’ Another partyman, Yamal Vyas, predicted that the BJP would sweep the polls ‘‘as per the feedback that I have received from various areas’’.

Much discussion in the party office also dealt with the activities of the Chief Minister on the polling day. Modi spent most part of yesterday in the party office, talking to partymen or watching TV.

It was reported that the CM’s body language showed marked pessimism after reports filtered in that many Hindu voters had found their names missing from the voters’ list in Maninagar, his constituency. But Modi perked up later after he got news that the voting percentage had crossed the 50-mark indicating a comfortable position for the BJP.

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Fiery calculations were also in progress at the tea stall located below the BJP office. However, interest here centered on individual seats, with party activists giving their assessment on a good performance of their candidate.

A worker from Kalupur walked in saying Krishanvadan Brahmbhatt from Kalupur would lose, but with a small margin. His analysis: ‘‘Had the Muslim voters’ turnout been low, Brahmbhatt would have won. Nazneen Bastawala, who was denied ticket, has also helped Brahmbhatt to get some Muslim votes.’’ He concluded with his prediction of Brahmbhatt losing by about 500 votes.