Cong bites dust in Rajkot again

RAJKOT: The Congress seems to have kept its tradition of losing to new-comers who fight on BJP tickets. If earlier Manohersinh Jadeja lost to Umesh Rajyaguru and Ramesh Rupapara, this time it was Shanta Chavda who lost against a totally new face, Siddharth Parmar.
The Congress has been losing in Rajkot for almost a decade and has not been able to make inroads into this BJP bastion.This time around, they saw a glimmer of hope in Shanta Chavda, however, he too lost the election.
While it was virtually the end of the road for Manohersinh Jadeja in Rajkot-1, it was also curtains for Kashmira Nathwani who lost for the second time against Vajubhai Vala. The only saving grace was that Vala’s victory margin was not huge.
Jadeja has been managing the affairs of the city Congress from his Hathikhana office for almost 28 years. During his tenure, Congress’ fortunes dipped to a record low while BJP’s popularity graph saw an upward swing.
Sources said, the main reason for Congress’ rout in Rajkot was Jadeja’s style of functioning. The former prince of Rajkot had formed a kitchen cabinet that was packed with ‘hajurias’ and those with a servile attitude.
With every successive election in Rajkot, be it the general election or the assembly election, Congress’ popularity kept eroding while the BJP made huge gains. During Jadeja’s tenure, the Kshtriya-Patel divide was complete within the Congress and although electoral politics demanded that a Patel candidate be given a ticket to ensure victory, Jadeja did not vacate his seat.
Earlier, dissidence raised its ugly head occasionally, but later on it became chronic. In fact, according to sources in the party, it was Jadeja who stoked the fire of dissidence to keep himself safely in the saddle.
The Congress here has been down in the dumps for all these years and some life was breathed into the party after it dislodged the BJP in the Rajkot Municipal corporation by coming to power after a gap of 25 years. However, victory forgotten, discontentment brewed once again within the party after Jadeja tried to take all the credit for defeating the saffron brigade in its stronghold.
It now seems that the Congress had been winning so far, more because of the negative vote for the BJP rather than its own popularity.