As the battle for Gujarat intensifies with each passing day, an audio clip which purportedly contains Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s phone recording has gone viral. In the audio, Rupani is supposedly convincing one of the five independent Jain candidates in Surendra Nagar district to withdraw his nomination.
Even though the clip has not yet been authenticated, it reveals the nervousness of the BJP’s leadership. If a person of Rupani’s stature (who has recently been anointed the CM) is pleading an independent candidate to withdraw his nomination, it only shows how under-confident the party is.
In the recorded phone conversation, CM Rupani admits to the independent candidate from Surendra Nagar, Naresh Sangitam, that the BJP’s position in Gujarat is in doldrums and that he himself is facing an uphill task in convincing the Jain vote bank of Surendra Nagar district.
Rupani’s Alleged Plea
Rupani further says, that PM Narendra Modi appointed him as the CM of the state even though there are only 5 percent Jains in Gujarat. He further reiterated that he is the one and only Jain CM in India.
Rupani added that the Jains of Surendra Nagar are filing nominations against BJP candidates, and that is denting the BJP’s prospects, especially Rupani’s, who claims to be in muddle himself. By the end of the call, Naresh bhai assures Rupani that the Jain community is standing with the CM.
Earlier this month in an interview with The Quint’s Sanjay Pugalia, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani expressed his confidence in BJP’s prowess in Gujarat and claimed that the party will form a government with 3/4th majority or 151 seats out of the total 182.
However, in the unverified audio clip, Rupani seems to be quite tensed and has to ask independent Jain candidates to back out from the race.
Jain Community Miffed
According to sources, five candidates including Naresh bhai have withdrawn their nominations from Surendra Nagar. These are Rachit Shah, Bharat Kothari, Bhavesh Vora and Milan Shah.
Naresh bhai spoke to The Quint and said that the audio clip is fake and that he has filed a complaint with Surendra Nagar Crime Branch. He said, “This is the third time I have filed a nomination and subsequently withdrawn it. My ploy is to dent the opposition’s chances by 30,000 votes at least if I’m in the running. The Congress and BJP had approached me and assured me that they will ensure that the Jain community progresses, should either one form the government. Thus I withdrew my nomination.”
He categorically denied that Rupani had approached him to withdraw his candidacy. According to sources, the Jain community in Surendra Nagar is miffed with Rupani after the saffron party dropped two-time MLA Varsha Doshi and issued the ticket to Dhanji Patel, a Patidar and an industrialist.
BJP Refuses to Comment
When The Quint called BJP Spokesperson, Yamal Vyas on the matter, he said, “I’m sorry, I am out of the state on a personal visit. I have no clue about these developments.” Vyas then forwarded our query to the BJP media centre in Ahmedabad, where Harshad Patel, who runs the centre, said that no statements have been issued by the party HQ in this regard.
Dhanji Patel, founder and chairman of Makson Group of Companies, is politically inexperienced. He hails from the Leuva sub-caste of Patidars, the same sub-caste that Hardik belongs to.
Warrant Issued Against Mevani
A non-bailable warrant has been issued against Jignesh Mevani for failing to appear for the hearing of a case pertaining to Rail-Roko demonstration the Dalit leader had carried out. Jignesh and his supporters, on 11 January this year, blocked the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express at Ahmedabad Railway Station when the state was hosting the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar.
Mevani’s lawyer pleaded that his client was busy filing his nomination from Vadgam constituency, however, the additional metropolitan magistrate rejected the plea and issued a warrant against Jignesh and 12 of his supporters.
Number of Female Candidates Drop
Both the BJP and the Congress in the rush to play defensive have issued less tickets to women candidates. According to the list issued by both the parties, the BJP has issued tickets to 11 candidates as compared to 19 in 2012. The Congress on the other hand has only fielded 11 candidates in the last polls and this year it managed to issue tickets to 10. The highest number of tickets issued to women were in 2007 election season when the BJP had issued tickets to 22 women and the Congress to 15.
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