New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has made inroads in Gujarat by winning six wards in the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) elections, results of which were declared Tuesday.
Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, who took to Twitter to thank the voters, will be holding a roadshow in Surat on 26 February.
नई राजनीति की शुरुआत करने के लिए गुजरात के लोगों को दिल से बधाई।
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 23, 2021
આમ આદમી પાર્ટીના ગુજરાત યુનિટના તમામ કાર્યકરોની મહેનતને સલામ અને બધાને હાર્દિક અભિનંદન. સુરતના મતદાતાઓએ પણ વ્યક્ત કર્યું છે કે હવે ભવિષ્યમાં સમગ્ર ગુજરાત કર્મના રાજકારણને આવકારવા તૈયાર છે. pic.twitter.com/YyYNrb2nxz
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 24, 2021
The BJP retained power by winning 93 seats in the 120-seat SMC, while the Congress, which had won 36 seats in the SMC last time, was reduced to zero seats.
Of the 470 candidates that the AAP fielded across six corporations in Gujarat, it won 27 seats in Surat — making it the first time for the party to open an account in the state’s civic polls.
Political experts opined that the AAP’s win was a result of the support from the crucial Patidar community, who were known to be loyal to the Congress.
AAP’s convener in Gujarat, Gopal Italia, is a Patidar himself who belongs to Surat and is believed to have helped garner support from the community.
AAP mostly won seats in areas dominated by the Patels — Katargam Bus, Kosad, Pune East, where all its candidates won, Pune West and Kapodra.
Popular Patidar leader Hardik Patel’s appointment as the working president of Gujarat Congress in July last year evidently didn’t benefit the party in Surat. Patel rose to prominence in 2015 on the back of the massive Patidar quota agitation, which demanded OBC status for the community and reservation in jobs.
However, though political experts attribute the AAP’s performance to support from the Patidars, AAP believes “everyone voted for an honest party”.
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‘Everyone voted for AAP’
Italia told ThePrint it is not just the Patidars that voted for the AAP, but all communities gave “a corruption-free leadership a chance”.
“Everyone voted. People voted for an honest party. Those who once believed that only an established party can rule here chose to give us a chance, to give quality education, health and a corruption-free leadership a chance,” Italia told ThePrint.
“Some of our winning candidates are lawyers, engineers, doctors and that shows even those with no background in politics can take the lead,” he added.
At 22, AAP’s Payal Patel is the youngest corporator to be elected to Surat municipal corporation, he added.
Ghanshyam Shah, a Gujarat-based political expert, however, said the Patidars might have found a new alternative in AAP.
“It will take a while to break this down, but as per the initial observations, it seems that the Patidar community that cares quite a lot for reservation, caught the AAP’s attention. The influential community had been feeling ignored and undermined for a while in the state and perhaps were looking for an alternative, which they might have found in AAP.”
Shah also felt Italia’s presence contributed to the win.
“The state leader has been around and managed to gather a team quickly. Now whether the team will be able to retain its foothold in the coming time or not is tough to say, but in the past few months, they were seen on the ground,” he told ThePrint.
‘Patidars unhappy with BJP’
Meanwhile, a member of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), who didn’t want to be named, told ThePrint the outfit ensured they don’t vote for the Congress.
ThePrint reached PAAS convener Alpesh Kathiriya through calls for a comment on the matter, but his phone number remained unavailable.
However, sources in the organisation said the Patidars were unhappy with the BJP as some of the issues of the community were not taken up by the party, which is why they chose to give a chance to the AAP.
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