Uday Mahurkar

When it comes to announcing candidates, and keeping the stakeholders happy, the Bharatiya Janata Party sure has an edge over the Congress.

The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) has always said that its main objective is to secure quotas for the Patel community. And to that end it was prepared to take the Congress’s support.But it all seemed to unravel after the Congress announced its first list of 77 candidates late on November 19.

Political considerations evidently took over as Congress initially gave PAAS just three of the seven seats it had agreed to (a total of 20 Patel candidates have got tickets so far). And two of these went to candidates without the approval of the outfit’s leadership. PAAS co-convenor Dinesh Bhambhania was livid. “We will defeat the Congress. It has stabbed us in the back,” he declared.

Enraged activists attacked the Congress office in Surat on Monday where local Patel businessman Praful Togadia was nominated against the leadership’s wishes.Such was the uproar that Hardik nearly cancelled his public meetings in Rajkot the following day.

The controversy, however, was brought under control after the Congress reportedly replaced four Patel candidates including Togadia at Hardik’s behest. There were even murmurs of differences between Hardik and Bhambhania, his right hand man who had backed him even after the recent sex videos scandal involving the Patidar leader.

Anyway, it hasn’t had much impact on Hardik’s charisma as crowds at his rallies have only swelled further. A cautious BJP has distanced itself from the controversy, fearing a sympathy wave in Hardik’s favour.

The saffron party, meanwhile, seems to have fared better in ticket distribution. Declaring its initial list of 89 candidates three days before the Congress, the party had announced 134 nominees by the time the Congress released its first list. The party has dropped two sitting ministers, electing instead to nominate nine first-timers. The BJP too faced protests in a few constituencies but has been able to nip it in the bud.

Unwilling to take any chance, the BJP has also shifted a number of sitting MLAs from their traditional bastions. Ex-minister Saurabh Patel has been moved from Vadodara to Botad, and assembly speaker Raman Vora is to contest from Dasada in Saurashtra instead of Idar in North Gujarat. Party president Amit Shah is camping in Gujarat, to fine-tune the campaign and also quell any protests over ticket distribution.

One factor that might affect some seats is the NCP decision to go it alone after seat-sharing talks with the Congress failed. The NCP won two seats in 2012 and its tie-up with the Congress had knocked out at least three BJP candidates.