Modi’s ‘Pak’ Jibe vs a ‘Lazy’ Congress: Editor’s Take on Gujarat

PM Modi’s ‘Pakistan Remark’ Shows the BJP’s Polarisation Strategy

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may be on course to win in Gujarat, but the “foul play” mastered by it has set a dangerous precedent, feels Sanjay Pugalia, The Quint’s Editorial Director.

Pugalia maintains that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll-time allegation that senior Congress leaders had met Pakistani officials in an attempt to meddle in Gujarat polls is ‘rather worrying.’

He further added that the PM’s polarisation politics, played out around Hardik Patel, Shehzad Poonawalla and others have only brought down the image of his office.

He also feels that the urban constituencies of Ahmedabad and Surat helped the BJP win Gujarat.

Can the BJP Ignore ‘Warning Signals’ From Gujarat 2017?

“Although PM Modi continues to enjoy pan-Indian popularity, the BJP must work to bring in individuality and ‘real development’ when it forms an undisputed government for 22 years in a row,” Pugalia added.

Gujarat is presently reeling under an agrarian crisis, massive unemployment and an unsettling urban-rural divide. To add to its troubles, more Gujaratis are talking about the government’s unilateral mode of functioning.

Gujarat – which created PM Modi – has sent him a warning. The BJP has to learn the right lessons from this mandate, should it seek to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. 

Sanjay Pugalia, Editorial Director, The Quint

‘Laziness’ to Blame For Congress Defeat in Gujarat?

The Congress may have put up a brave fight in Gujarat 2017, yet its “lazy attitude” in transforming mass-discontent into actual votes stopped it from interrupting the BJP’s 22-year-old rule in the state. The BJP ensured the last mile connectivity to the polling stations using its massive electoral machinery.

In contrast to the BJP’s efficient poll-management, the Congress failed to transform wide-scale discontent against the BJP into actual votes. 

Sanjay Pugalia, Editorial Director, The Quint