Rebels throw down the gauntlet to Ahmedabad BJP

It seems the ruling BJP is waging a grim battle in these elections, polling day for which is October 10. And it's not the rival candidates who are giving it sleepless nights. It's the party dissidents --- and they are large in number - who are giving it a trying time.

Dissatisfaction among its workers, which is happening for the first time during the past four previous elections, is forcing the party to put in extra efforts in 30 out of the 65 wards in the city.

Workers are very dissatisfied with the allocation of tickets for the polls. For the first time after Narendra Modi took over power in the state, the BJP office in Khanpur has been the scene of large scale protests from workers of half of the election wards on the issue of ticket allocation. Despite protests from more than 35 wards, the party has remained firm over selection of candidates.

Now the results of this policy are showing with the BJP candidates getting lukewarm response. In many wards, active workers of the BJP are not participating in campaigning or in the election process. In a few wards, the central office of the BJP has closed down early and few people are seen there, which is normally not the case.

"We are quite dissatisfied that our party did not look after loyal workers," said a BJP worker of Naranpura. "In fact, nobody wants to participate in the election process. Many workers have left the city or they are not coming for election work," he said.

The party cannot even count on candidates getting help from their own party workers. Many candidates are contesting the election for the first time and so they have no local support, or BJP workers are not willing to campaign for them.

"We have lack of co-ordination among the panel of three candidates. They are also helpless as they lack experience and active workers are not supporting them," said another BJP worker.
Senior ministers and organisational leaders are holding meetings with the workers, in a bid to alleviate the situation. A couple of days ago, a senior minister made an appeal to the BJP workers to join the election process.

According to sources, city BJP president Rakesh Shah had urged the ward presidents of the youth cell to support the party in the campaigns. Due to the idleness, voter's slips have been not despatched to the voters' address by the party workers.
Sources further claimed that BJP's dream plan of 'One booth, Ten youth' has also collapsed in many wards.

Candidates are not keeping faith in their own workers and are indulging their own loyalists, relatives and siblings in the election process.  But senior political workers are apprehensive that even if the BJP wins the election, the margin of victory may be very low.