AHMEDABAD:
Gujarat
’s countryside was painted saffron on Tuesday as
BJP captured all 31 district panchayats, the majority of the 81 municipalities and over 200 of the 231 taluka (block) panchayats that had gone to polls on February 28.
With the resounding victory, which came a week after the party had swept all six municipal corporations, BJP turned the tables on
Congress, which had made massive electoral gains in 2015 on the back of a violent Patidar reservation stir led by Hardik Patel and the Dalit stir championed by Jignesh Mevani.
In 2015, BJP had been decimated in 24 out of the 31 district panchayats, besides losing in 138 out of the 228 taluka panchayats. The party had, however, kept its semi-urban base intact by winning 45 out of 57 municipalities.
Congress was pushed further towards oblivion in Gujarat after failing to win a single district panchayat and taking a battering in the municipalities. In effect, the grand old party’s grassroot ssupport was significantly uprooted in the saffron storm.
AAP, which had stunned all in the municipality polls by winning 27 seats in the Patidar strongholds of Surat, made a modest entry into the rural bodies by winning 42 out of the 2,097 seats it contested.
AAP’s Surat show had set off chatter that it would also make inroads into the Patel-dominated districts like
Amreli
and Morbi, where BJP had lost badly in the 2017 state polls.
All such speculation got a quiet burial after the Patidars strongly rooted for BJP.
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