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Journalism of Courage
February 25: Though there are no doubts left about BJP leader L.K. Advani’s victory from Gujarat’s capital, his rivals haven’t given up. What makes the Advani camp sweat are two factors: Shankersinh Vaghela who had vacated this seat for his then boss and Advani’s long-time absence from the constituency.
Vaghela has fielded preacher Chaitanya Shambhu Maharaj as the Rashtriya Janata Party’s candidate to “expose the BJP’s so-called Hindutva plank,” while the Congress has selected Gujarat’s former director general of police (DGP) P.K. Datta.
That the rivals are giving a tough time to Advani could be gauged from the fact that his entire family has been camping and campaigning in the constituency for over a fortnight. His wife Kamala Devi who has been visiting rural areas to seek votes for Advani faced an angry crowd at Pethapur village. They staged demonstrations against the neglect of their village by their MP.
“The BJP had garnered Hindu votes in the name of the Ram temple in the successive electionssince 1991, but now they are wooing Muslims. I’ll expose this double-speak,” says Maharaj of the RJP. A close confidant of Vaghela and the head of the Gujarat Yatradham Vikas Board, the RJP candidate has been extensively touring Hindu pockets of Gandhinagar, telling people how the BJP has been deceiving them in the name of religion. The Maharaj, known for his oratory skills, is also campaigning in the Dalit and Muslim-dominated areas, cautioning them against the “BJP’s evil design.” The preacher says Datta is not in the picture and the fight is between him and Advani.
Datta, the former DGP, is a political novice and his own style of campaign. He shuns delivering speeches and has instead preferred to establish a direct contact with the people through a door-to-door campaign. The Congress candidate’s main charge is that Advani had not even bothered to fully utilise the discretionary funds allotted to him as an MP. “I am still wondering what prompted the BJP president to contest again from Gandhinagar. Idon’t think people will favour him this time, for Advani was hardly seen here after getting elected in 1991,” says Datta.
However, the breakdown of alliance between the Congress and RJP will help Advani and the BJP. Both the Congress and the RJP candidates will cut into each other’s votes — comprising a huge part of 4.5 lakh Dalits and 2.75 lakh Muslims in the constituency.
