Gujarat Election =Whose Victory

There is much excitement and also heartburning in the camps of both the BJP and
the Congress after the poll results were announced. Both the parties are interpreting
the results as their victories of sorts, but are also glum not making the expected
mark. But from another perspective, it is an ideological victory for both since both
the parties are beholden to big business and swear by the policy of globalisation and
privatisation. It was more like a friendly match to decide who will serve their interest
better. The real losers are the ordinary folks, two per cent them, that is five lakh
voters could see through game and exercised NOTA. As somebody jokingly
remarked: BJP is only Congress plus the cow, so what is the choice. In this election,
however, Hindutva Became the decisive poll plank and the scoring point and it was
advantage BJP after Congress double faulted a la Mani Shankar's and Sibbal's faux
pas. After that for the BJP there was no looking back. Mind you, except for
Saurashtra the scorecard for both the parties in rest of the three regions in 2014 and
2017 is the same. Experts are busy analysing the 'reshuffle' in the electoral pattern on
the basis of rural/urban divide, gender proclivities, cast creed, age of the voter, and
whatever one can think of to create a smokescreen to cloud the real issue of
exclusion, poverty and employment and development.

V P Jain