News Analysis India

Tag: Gujarat Assembly election

  • PM Modi inaugurates two-day BJP meet, asks cadre to highlight G20 presidency

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Hours after casting vote in Gujarat assembly election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached on Monday New Delhi and inaugurated the two-day national office-bearers meeting of BJP at the party headquarters.The PM in his inaugural speech outlined the importance of India’s presidency of G-20. He asked the party office-bearers, arrived from across the country, to make the people aware of G-20 presidency.

    “Over this achievement of assuming presidency of G20, every Indian should make feel proud and participate in this through various activities and events planned as part of G-20 presidency,” the PM reportedly said.India assumed the presidency from Indonesia on December 1 has and planned a slew of activities throughout the country to celebrate hoistoric achievement.

    Sources said that the party’s preparations for upcoming elections in state and the 2024 general elections were also discussed in the second session of the two-day meeting.“Office-bearers were also advised to explore more and more people, make new connects and take the government’s works to them as part of party’s pro-people political strategy ahead of polls in 2023 and 2024,” said a  senior functionary.

    Sources also added that the PM Modi shared many people-centric political initiatives stressing that the BJP stands for the nation and the people.Besides PM, presidents and general secretaries (organisation) of the BJP’s state units were also acquainted with party’s strategies and other activities and plans at the secondsession of meeting, chaired by party’s national president J P Nadda.

    NEW DELHI: Hours after casting vote in Gujarat assembly election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached on Monday New Delhi and inaugurated the two-day national office-bearers meeting of BJP at the party headquarters.The PM in his inaugural speech outlined the importance of India’s presidency of G-20. He asked the party office-bearers, arrived from across the country, to make the people aware of G-20 presidency.

    “Over this achievement of assuming presidency of G20, every Indian should make feel proud and participate in this through various activities and events planned as part of G-20 presidency,” the PM reportedly said.India assumed the presidency from Indonesia on December 1 has and planned a slew of activities throughout the country to celebrate hoistoric achievement.

    Sources said that the party’s preparations for upcoming elections in state and the 2024 general elections were also discussed in the second session of the two-day meeting.“Office-bearers were also advised to explore more and more people, make new connects and take the government’s works to them as part of party’s pro-people political strategy ahead of polls in 2023 and 2024,” said a  senior functionary.

    Sources also added that the PM Modi shared many people-centric political initiatives stressing that the BJP stands for the nation and the people.Besides PM, presidents and general secretaries (organisation) of the BJP’s state units were also acquainted with party’s strategies and other activities and plans at the second
    session of meeting, chaired by party’s national president J P Nadda.

  • Gujarat: Parties extensively use social media to connect with voters, run poll campaigns 

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: Teams of thousands of workers and volunteers are keeping the social media pages of different political parties abuzz like a well-oiled machine to run campaigns and garner support of target voters for the next month’s Assembly elections in Gujarat. 

    If the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) relies on its established network of followers on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, the opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are using popular messaging platform WhatsApp extensively to reach out to voters on the grassroots level.

    BJP’s social media campaigns are focused on highlighting the achievements of the party-led government in Gujarat during the last two decades.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi served as Gujarat CM from 2001 to 2014.

    The saffron outfit is also tapping into the emotive issue of Gujarati pride through the newly-launched campaign “Aa Gujarat Me Banavyu Chhe (I have created this Gujarat).

    The Congress, on the other hand, is harking back to the era when it ruled the state, the contributions its governments made for development of the state and how the BJP has done nothing in its 27 years of rule, a party office-bearer told PTI.

    The AAP has created a narrative around the party’s numerous “guarantees” announced by its national convener Arvind Kejriwal during his poll campaigns in the state and is relying extensively on WhatsApp to connect with voters, a party functionary said.

    Manan Dani, social media co-in-charge of the BJP, said, “We have run five campaigns so far, and we will be running a few more in the coming days. We keep changing our campaigns every week to present something new to the people.”

    He said the party started the 2022 Gujarat Assembly poll campaign around six months back with the tagline in local language – “20 Varas No Viswas, 20 Varas No Vikas” (trust and development of the last 20 years).

    The ruling party has run campaigns like “Modiji Na Suwarn 20 Saal (20 golden years of Modi)”, “Vande Bharat”, “Aa Gujarat Main Banayu Chhe”, “BJP etle Bharoso (BJP means trust)” among others, in the run-up to the election, Dani told PTI.

    The Gujarat BJP uses more than 15 applications in its voter outreach drives.

    The saffron party has over 35 lakh followers on Facebook, 57.8 lakh on Instagram, 1.5 million on Twitter and 45,600 on YouTube.

    As against this, the Congress has 7 lakh followers on Facebook, 64.3 lakh on Instagram, 1,64,000 on Twitter and 8,91,000 on YouTube. The AAP has 5.67 lakh followers on Facebook, 1.17 lakh followers on Instagram.

    While the state AAP does not have a separate YouTube page, it relies on its national YouTube page which has 42.3 lakh followers.

    The BJP has a team of more than 20,000 workers and more than 60,000 volunteers running its social media campaigns, Dani said.

    Congress Social Media Department chairman Keyur Shah told PTI the party has drawn up a strategy to run a targeted campaign, that is, making pages on social media platforms that are specific to particular Assembly seats and communities, to raise issues that affect people of that particular constituency.

    The party is relying heavily on WhatsApp to run its campaign and target voters at grassroots level, he said.

    “We have formed around 50,000 WhatsApp groups at booth and village levels. These include booth-level workers, but also social community-wise groups for different seats. We have groups of Thakor, Patidar, Adivasi communities. We put targeted content on these groups,” Shah explained.

    The Congress functionary said the opposition party is highlighting “failures” of BJP governments in Gujarat.

    “People want to know what the previous Congress governments did for them, and how nothing new was added by the successive BJP governments.”

    Congress nu kaam bole chhe (works of Congress speak for themselves)” is the central campaign theme for the party.

    “The party hired agencies to create content. Apart from party officials, 10,000-12,000 volunteers are working round the clock for the organisation at local levels,” Shah said.

    The AAP’s social media campaigns rely heavily on volunteers consisting of young college students and professionals, said Dr Safin Hasan, social media in-charge of the party in Gujarat. WhatsApp remains the major focus of the party for social media campaigns, he said.

    The Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit has a core team of 25 youngsters to look after its social media campaigns.

    Apart from this, the AAP has around 20,000 ‘social media warriors’ who are not necessarily full-time party workers but support it on different platforms by helping run campaigns and spread its messages, Hasan said.

    “We have created thousands of WhatsApp groups. We are spreading our agenda, party vision, manifesto, guarantees, and activities on the ground using WhatsApp extensively. We have multi-level groups at Assembly constituency and village levels,” he said.

    Facebook page of Isudan Gadhvi, the AAP’s chief ministerial candidate, is doing better than other parties in Gujarat, Hasan claimed.

    “We are a party with very limited resources and therefore we rely heavily on volunteers. We have strengthened volunteers at village level by providing them training on how to use social media platforms,” said the AAP functionary.

    Voting to elect a new 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases – December 1 and 5 – and ballots will be counted on December 8.

    AHMEDABAD: Teams of thousands of workers and volunteers are keeping the social media pages of different political parties abuzz like a well-oiled machine to run campaigns and garner support of target voters for the next month’s Assembly elections in Gujarat. 

    If the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) relies on its established network of followers on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, the opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are using popular messaging platform WhatsApp extensively to reach out to voters on the grassroots level.

    BJP’s social media campaigns are focused on highlighting the achievements of the party-led government in Gujarat during the last two decades.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi served as Gujarat CM from 2001 to 2014.

    The saffron outfit is also tapping into the emotive issue of Gujarati pride through the newly-launched campaign “Aa Gujarat Me Banavyu Chhe (I have created this Gujarat).

    The Congress, on the other hand, is harking back to the era when it ruled the state, the contributions its governments made for development of the state and how the BJP has done nothing in its 27 years of rule, a party office-bearer told PTI.

    The AAP has created a narrative around the party’s numerous “guarantees” announced by its national convener Arvind Kejriwal during his poll campaigns in the state and is relying extensively on WhatsApp to connect with voters, a party functionary said.

    Manan Dani, social media co-in-charge of the BJP, said, “We have run five campaigns so far, and we will be running a few more in the coming days. We keep changing our campaigns every week to present something new to the people.”

    He said the party started the 2022 Gujarat Assembly poll campaign around six months back with the tagline in local language – “20 Varas No Viswas, 20 Varas No Vikas” (trust and development of the last 20 years).

    The ruling party has run campaigns like “Modiji Na Suwarn 20 Saal (20 golden years of Modi)”, “Vande Bharat”, “Aa Gujarat Main Banayu Chhe”, “BJP etle Bharoso (BJP means trust)” among others, in the run-up to the election, Dani told PTI.

    The Gujarat BJP uses more than 15 applications in its voter outreach drives.

    The saffron party has over 35 lakh followers on Facebook, 57.8 lakh on Instagram, 1.5 million on Twitter and 45,600 on YouTube.

    As against this, the Congress has 7 lakh followers on Facebook, 64.3 lakh on Instagram, 1,64,000 on Twitter and 8,91,000 on YouTube. The AAP has 5.67 lakh followers on Facebook, 1.17 lakh followers on Instagram.

    While the state AAP does not have a separate YouTube page, it relies on its national YouTube page which has 42.3 lakh followers.

    The BJP has a team of more than 20,000 workers and more than 60,000 volunteers running its social media campaigns, Dani said.

    Congress Social Media Department chairman Keyur Shah told PTI the party has drawn up a strategy to run a targeted campaign, that is, making pages on social media platforms that are specific to particular Assembly seats and communities, to raise issues that affect people of that particular constituency.

    The party is relying heavily on WhatsApp to run its campaign and target voters at grassroots level, he said.

    “We have formed around 50,000 WhatsApp groups at booth and village levels. These include booth-level workers, but also social community-wise groups for different seats. We have groups of Thakor, Patidar, Adivasi communities. We put targeted content on these groups,” Shah explained.

    The Congress functionary said the opposition party is highlighting “failures” of BJP governments in Gujarat.

    “People want to know what the previous Congress governments did for them, and how nothing new was added by the successive BJP governments.”

    Congress nu kaam bole chhe (works of Congress speak for themselves)” is the central campaign theme for the party.

    “The party hired agencies to create content. Apart from party officials, 10,000-12,000 volunteers are working round the clock for the organisation at local levels,” Shah said.

    The AAP’s social media campaigns rely heavily on volunteers consisting of young college students and professionals, said Dr Safin Hasan, social media in-charge of the party in Gujarat. WhatsApp remains the major focus of the party for social media campaigns, he said.

    The Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit has a core team of 25 youngsters to look after its social media campaigns.

    Apart from this, the AAP has around 20,000 ‘social media warriors’ who are not necessarily full-time party workers but support it on different platforms by helping run campaigns and spread its messages, Hasan said.

    “We have created thousands of WhatsApp groups. We are spreading our agenda, party vision, manifesto, guarantees, and activities on the ground using WhatsApp extensively. We have multi-level groups at Assembly constituency and village levels,” he said.

    Facebook page of Isudan Gadhvi, the AAP’s chief ministerial candidate, is doing better than other parties in Gujarat, Hasan claimed.

    “We are a party with very limited resources and therefore we rely heavily on volunteers. We have strengthened volunteers at village level by providing them training on how to use social media platforms,” said the AAP functionary.

    Voting to elect a new 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases – December 1 and 5 – and ballots will be counted on December 8.

  • Acted on my conscience, says AAP’s ‘kidnapped’ Gujarat candidate who withdrew nomination

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD/ DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party’s Surat East Assembly seat candidate in Gujarat withdrew his nomination on Wednesday, with the AAP alleging that he was kidnapped and pressured to do so at the behest of the BJP, a charge denied by the ruling party.

    The AAP candidate, Kanchan Jariwala, cleared the air by issuing a video statement in which he purportedly said he withdrew his nomination without any pressure and by listening to his conscience after the people of his constituency labelled him “anti-national” and “anti-Gujarat” for contesting the election from the AAP and threatened not to support him.

    The AAP wrote to the Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P Bharathi on the issue and requested her to inquire into the entire incident and take appropriate action.

    Amid the development, Congress candidate from the seat, Aslam Cyclewala, wrote an open letter seeking the support of the AAP and end such “anti-social pollution”. 

    ALSO READ | AAP candidate withdraws nomination, Sisodia alleges ‘BJP goons’ abducted him

    Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Deputy Chief Minister and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia said their Surat seat candidate Jariwala, along with his family, had been missing since Tuesday.

    “In this election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is miserably losing in Gujarat and has become so rattled that it has stooped to the level of kidnapping our candidate,” Sisodia alleged.

    #WATCH | Gujarat: AAP candidate from Surat (East) from Gujarat, Kanchan Jariwala, takes back his nomination after he was allegedly kidnapped last evening pic.twitter.com/E1vqqkveNi
    — ANI (@ANI) November 16, 2022
    “Fearing defeat, the BJP goons kidnapped the AAP candidate from Surat, Kanchan Jariwala,” he alleged.

    State AAP president Gopal Italia claimed their Surat East candidate appeared before the office of the Returning Officer on Wednesday under heavy police protection and surrounded by “BJP goons” to withdraw his candidature under the pressure of the ruling party. 

    Italia alleged that Jariwala had gone missing and was allegedly taken to an undisclosed location by the BJP goons, who put pressure on him to stay away from the election.

    However, Surat city BJP president Niranjan Zanzmera refuted the allegations and said the AAP should instead “take care of its own house.

    “In the purported video message, Jariwala said, “During campaigning, people repeatedly told me that I was anti-national and anti-Gujarat and they will not support me for the party from which I have filed my candidature. Getting such negative feedback from the public, my conscience cried.”

    “I listened to my conscience and made up my mind not to contest the election from such an anti-national and anti-Gujarat party and withdrew my nomination without any pressure,” he said.

    In the letter to the Gujarat CEO, AAP leader and Rajya Sabha members Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha accused the BJP of trying to get his nomination rejected initially, which did not work as the returning officer accepted the nomination.

    “It is not only a misuse of the police machinery but against the essence of free and fair elections,” the letter said.

    “BJP did not stop there and threatened him and his family for life,” stated the letter.

    “This is a horrific story and a blot on the election system that threatens to tear apart the democratic fabric of the country,” the AAP said, requesting the CEO to take notice of the “grave situation” and direct an inquiry into the entire incident and take appropriate and strict action as per law.

    “As the withdrawal process of the nomination paper of this candidate is under threat, coercion and pressure, therefore withdrawal or any such attempt may be acted upon immediately,” it said.

    Congress candidate Cyclewala sought the support of the AAP from the seat to defeat the BJP.

    “On the direct orders of state BJP president CR Paatil, the nomination of your candidate for Surat East Assembly seat has been withdrawn by intimidation, money power and deceit,” he alleged in a post on his Facebook page.

    “In a democracy, if you really want to end such anti-social corruption, then you should openly support me on the 159-Surat East assembly seat,” he said in his note addressed to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and the party’s state leadership. 

    The BJP has fielded its sitting MLA Arvind Rana from the seat.

    Elections for the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.

    AHMEDABAD/ DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party’s Surat East Assembly seat candidate in Gujarat withdrew his nomination on Wednesday, with the AAP alleging that he was kidnapped and pressured to do so at the behest of the BJP, a charge denied by the ruling party.

    The AAP candidate, Kanchan Jariwala, cleared the air by issuing a video statement in which he purportedly said he withdrew his nomination without any pressure and by listening to his conscience after the people of his constituency labelled him “anti-national” and “anti-Gujarat” for contesting the election from the AAP and threatened not to support him.

    The AAP wrote to the Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P Bharathi on the issue and requested her to inquire into the entire incident and take appropriate action.

    Amid the development, Congress candidate from the seat, Aslam Cyclewala, wrote an open letter seeking the support of the AAP and end such “anti-social pollution”. 

    ALSO READ | AAP candidate withdraws nomination, Sisodia alleges ‘BJP goons’ abducted him

    Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Deputy Chief Minister and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia said their Surat seat candidate Jariwala, along with his family, had been missing since Tuesday.

    “In this election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is miserably losing in Gujarat and has become so rattled that it has stooped to the level of kidnapping our candidate,” Sisodia alleged.

    #WATCH | Gujarat: AAP candidate from Surat (East) from Gujarat, Kanchan Jariwala, takes back his nomination after he was allegedly kidnapped last evening pic.twitter.com/E1vqqkveNi
    — ANI (@ANI) November 16, 2022
    “Fearing defeat, the BJP goons kidnapped the AAP candidate from Surat, Kanchan Jariwala,” he alleged.

    State AAP president Gopal Italia claimed their Surat East candidate appeared before the office of the Returning Officer on Wednesday under heavy police protection and surrounded by “BJP goons” to withdraw his candidature under the pressure of the ruling party. 

    Italia alleged that Jariwala had gone missing and was allegedly taken to an undisclosed location by the BJP goons, who put pressure on him to stay away from the election.

    However, Surat city BJP president Niranjan Zanzmera refuted the allegations and said the AAP should instead “take care of its own house.

    “In the purported video message, Jariwala said, “During campaigning, people repeatedly told me that I was anti-national and anti-Gujarat and they will not support me for the party from which I have filed my candidature. Getting such negative feedback from the public, my conscience cried.”

    “I listened to my conscience and made up my mind not to contest the election from such an anti-national and anti-Gujarat party and withdrew my nomination without any pressure,” he said.

    In the letter to the Gujarat CEO, AAP leader and Rajya Sabha members Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha accused the BJP of trying to get his nomination rejected initially, which did not work as the returning officer accepted the nomination.

    “It is not only a misuse of the police machinery but against the essence of free and fair elections,” the letter said.

    “BJP did not stop there and threatened him and his family for life,” stated the letter.

    “This is a horrific story and a blot on the election system that threatens to tear apart the democratic fabric of the country,” the AAP said, requesting the CEO to take notice of the “grave situation” and direct an inquiry into the entire incident and take appropriate and strict action as per law.

    “As the withdrawal process of the nomination paper of this candidate is under threat, coercion and pressure, therefore withdrawal or any such attempt may be acted upon immediately,” it said.

    Congress candidate Cyclewala sought the support of the AAP from the seat to defeat the BJP.

    “On the direct orders of state BJP president CR Paatil, the nomination of your candidate for Surat East Assembly seat has been withdrawn by intimidation, money power and deceit,” he alleged in a post on his Facebook page.

    “In a democracy, if you really want to end such anti-social corruption, then you should openly support me on the 159-Surat East assembly seat,” he said in his note addressed to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and the party’s state leadership. 

    The BJP has fielded its sitting MLA Arvind Rana from the seat.

    Elections for the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.

  • Congress did nothing for OBCs, says Amit Shah

    Express News Service

    AHMEDABAD:  Trying to strengthen the BJP’s OBC vote bank ahead of the Gujarat Assembly election, Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday reiterated that the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave constitutional recognition to the backward classes commission, which the Congress “failed” to do during its 70 years of rule.

    Attending a function in Godhra, Shah said the grand old party ruled the country for 70 years but “did nothing for the OBCs”. “The National Commission on Backward Classes (NCBC) has been given constitutional recognition by the Narendra Modi government. We have given reservation to OBCs in the central medical quota and included 27 ministers from the OBC community in the Cabinet to promote backward classes,” the senior BJP leader further said.

    Shah, who also holds the cooperative portfolio at the Centre, alleged that previous Congress governments failed to create an environment conducive for the sector. He further said the Centre has come up with a plan to computerise all cooperatives and connect them directly to NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), for which Rs 6500 crore has been provisioned. Shah was addressing a large gathering of milk producers in Panchmahal district after remotely inaugurating two plants set up by the Godhra-based Panchamrut Dairy.

    Listing out the steps taken by the Modi government for the cooperative sector, Shah said the cooperative ministry was formed to give priority to the sector. “PM Modi increased the budget for cooperatives seven times, removed some taxes in the sugar sector, reduced the MAT (minimum alternate tax) to 15 from 18 per cent, and surcharge to 7 from 12 per cent on cooperative organisations,” he further said.

    Shah also inaugurated several projects related to the state police department. Launching a broadside on the Congress, Shah alleged that Congress worked to create communal riots in the state.