Gujarat elections 2017: Pro-incumbency has helped us win Gujarat, says Jitendra Singh

Hailing the sixth successive victory of the BJP in Gujarat, Union Minister and top party leader, Jitendra Singh, said that the party has introduced the concept of “pro-incumbency” which has helped them win comfortably even after being in power in the state for 22 years.

Amid victory celebrations at the party headquarters, Singh said that it is the BJP which has changed the definition of politics by introducing “pro-incumbency” as a factor. “Till this time, only anti-incumbency was known as a factor for winning or losing an election. But the BJP rule in Gujarat has established pro-incumbency as a major factor in winning peoples’ mandate,” said Singh, minister of state (MoS) in PMO.

Hitting at its rival Congress, Singh said, in the history of Indian democracy, winning the state elections after 22 years of rule with a comfortable margin means that people, in particular the youth, have rejected the politics of caste, which the Congress party had been trying to base their campaign on.

“The youth, which constitutes almost 40 per cent of the population, has forgotten the old baggage of caste. The Congress tried to make it a caste election, which did not work. We won on performance and delivery and not by visiting 28 temples like the Congress president,” said Singh. The Congress retained its traditional vote in pockets. However, its “negative” strategy of “intimidating” the Patidar community, failed on the ground, he said.