Why is the Congress shying away from the ‘West’?

While the Congress campaign leading up to the polls on Sunday was a rather low-profile affair, even more surprising was the conspicuous absence of the grand old party in the eastern part of the city.

Even during the last two days, when senior leaders and star campaigners entered the fray, the Congress chose to campaign only in their traditional bastion, the eastern areas of Ahmedabad. Be it cricketer-turned-MP Mohammad Azharuddin or actor Minissha Lamba, neither tried reaching out to the voters on the other side of the city, considered the more 'posh' and better-educated of the two.
Winning the hearts of voters in the West and New West zones was left to the candidates and local leaders in the wards, who've been carrying out a silent door-to-door campaign. 

Congress leaders Arjun Modhvadia, Narhari Amin, Siddharth Patel and even Shaktisinh Gohil hastily shuffled between wards on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, in an attempt to woo voters in areas like Naroda, Asarva, Girdharnagar, Madhupura, Rakhial, Kubernagar and Saijpur Bogha. In western Ahmedabad, areas like Chandlodia, Gota and Nava Wadaj were included in campaigning and public meetings by leaders like Amin, Modhvadia and city president Pankaj Shah. 

Political observers say the move might be a result of the realisation that the educated class in west Ahmedabad is not a traditional Congress votebank. It is mainly the SC/ST and minority communities that are perceived as Congress voters. This population is more ghettoized in the eastern areas, where the Congress typically had its senior leaders laying impetus.

Pankaj Shah, however, said that there was no such conscious effort to avoid campaigning in western areas. "The Congress has more voters in western Ahmedabad than in the eastern part of city. We are sure that people will want to vote for change, will vote for the Congress in west Ahmedabad,” he said.