The Hindu : BJP unhappy with turnout

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 13, 2002

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Other States - Gujarat

BJP unhappy with turnout

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD Dec. 12. The not-so-heavy polling in the crucial elections to the Gujarat Assembly today may be a cause for worry for the ruling BJP.

Though the estimate of 63 per cent voter turn out was not poor considering the State's record of 64.39 per cent polling in the 1995 elections, it was much less than the expected 70 per cent voting this time in view of the serious issues involved.

A heavy turn out was expected, particularly in the BJP strongholds, in a bid to neutralise the large-scale voting among the minorities which is certain to benefit the Congress. While the initial estimates indicated that the turn out among the minorities, who constitute about 15 per cent of the total 3.28 crore electorate in the State, was more than 80 per cent, the response apparently was not that enthusiastic among the majority community which could go against the BJP.

There also was no indication of polarisation of votes among the majority community, even in the BJP-bases in the urban areas, which was also causing concern among the ruling party leaders. The voting failed to pick up later in the day as expected, while the minority voters queued up in large numbers right from the morning.

In Godhra town, the scene of the train carnage, which throughout remained at the centre-stage of the electioneering, there were large queues of minority voters, while the response was rather lukewarm from the Hindus.

Political observers here believe that the BJP's communal card might not have played as effective a role as the ruling party leaders had hoped for. The mood in the BJP camp was rather subdued compared to the enthusiasm the Congressmen displayed after the end of the polling. Though both the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, and the State Congress president, Shankarsinh Waghela, claimed that their party would win at least a two-thirds majority in the 182-member House, Mr. Modi advised people to wait till the results were declared on Sunday.

The Congress too had reasons to worry as the voters in the rural centres, particularly in the Saurashtra region, did not flock the booths as enthusiastically as expected.

Polling was equally subdued in the earthquake-hit Kutch district where the Congress was hoping to reverse the 1998 trend when the party won only one seat and the BJP the remaining five.

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