While Gujarat Congress leaders are assessing whose votes the Keshubhai Patel-led Gujarat Parivartan Party eat into, the senior party officials stopped taking phone calls a day after the exit polls predicted chief minister Narendra Modi’s victory in the state Assembly polls for a third time.
Senior Congress leaders had once again relied on the Patel factor with a calculation that they would vote against Mr Modi. Instead, their division of votes helped the chief minister, viewed the Congress insiders after the two-phased polling.
But a state Congress leader said Patels cannot desert the BJP for the simple reason that the Congress cannot accommodate them and offer a chief ministership like the BJP.
In the last Assembly election, the Congress was optimistic that it would get mileage out of BJP rebels. But it may have miscalculated.
“Our campaign was better than the last time. There was no dearth of resources in this electoral battle. The government employees were against Narendra Modi. These factors must have worked in the campaign. Therefore, we don’t think the exit polls prediction is correct,” a former MP said.
But the insiders conceded that PCC president Arjun Modhwadia, CLP leader Shaktisinh Gohil and campaign committee chief Shankersinh Vaghela had a tough battle.
A Congress observer felt the high turnout in the poll is an indicator of a “wave” either in favour of “us or Narendra Modi”.
Meanwhile, reports Ahmedabad said Gujarat registered its highest ever voter turnout at 71.30 per cent in the Assembly elections held on December 13 and 17, surpassing the previous high of 64.70 per cent recorded in the 1995 elections, officials said here Tuesday after updating the figures.