New Delhi: Had the NCP and BSP stayed out of the contest in the recent Gujarat elections, the tally for Congress would have dramatically increased.
An analysis of results of 10 constituency seats suggests that anti-BJP votes which should have been gone to Congress are been split among the NCP and BSP. This led to Congress remain as runner-up in the elections.
If these anti-BJP votes hadn’t been split, the tally would have been BJP-led NDA 89 and the Congress camp 90, not 99-80 as it turned out.
Two Independent winners were party rebels and one victor was an NCP nominee, meaning the anti-BJP voters would have elected 93 MLAs.
There were 10 crucial seats where Congress had lost with narrow margin despite there being split of votes between BSP and NCP.
These 10 seats where BJP emerged victorious with just few votes include: Godhra, Himatnagar, Rajkot Rural, Fatepura, Porbandar, Prantij, Botad, Dholka, Vijapur, and Umreth.
This clearly suggests that had the Independents, the BSP and the NCP left the field clear to enable a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress, the final tally would have been 97 for the Congress camp and 85 for the rest, including the BJP.
The Congress leaders also allege that most of the independents who contested the elections in Gujarat have been fielded by BJP to split the anti-BJP votes. BJP has resorted to ‘micro-management’ in Gujarat.
In Godhra, the Congress candidate lost by 258 votes. Five Muslim candidates contested in Godhra, splitting the presumed anti-BJP votes and cumulatively polling 4,331 votes, or 4,073 more than the victory margin.
In Porbandar, the runner-up Congress candidate Arjunbhai Devabhai Modhvadiya had to contend with Independents such as Modhvadiya Arjanbhai Virambhai and Bokhriya Vastabhai Arjanbhai.