All eight Gujarat cities appear impregnable fortresses of BJP

AHMEDABAD: The ruling BJP has maintained a complete domination over urban seats in eight municipal corporation areas of Gujarat since 1990. While there were in all 28 such seats till 2007, post-delimitation these increased to 39 in the last elections in 2012 - when BJP won a whopping 35. The Congress won only four - two in Ahmedabad and one each in Jamnagar and Rajkot.

Even in 1990, when the party contested just 143 seats out of a total of 182 seats in the assembly, the BJP won 18 seats. The Congress slide in urban Gujarat in fact began in 1990, when it bagged just four seats with seven seats going to the Janata Dal. The best performance by the Congress in the last six elections for the city vote was in 2007 when it managed six wins.

The increase in seats post delimitation was due to growing urbanisation and expansion of boundaries of some of the municipal corporations - Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh and Gandhinagar.

There are reasons to believe that if the BJP wins a majority in 2017, it will be because of wins in the eight big cities of Gujarat. The BJP presently rules all eight municipal corporations.

In 2015, when civic body polls were held across Gujarat, the BJP ceded ground to the Congress in the zila and taluka panchayats, as also the municipalities, but gave its best ever performance in the municipal corporations. This, despite the violent Patidar agitation for quota having begun well and truly.

BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas said, "Our party has a strong urban presence because we had a good workers base in cities since 1990."

Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, "We are raising urban issues but we need to focus more on booth management in cities. Even Rahul Gandhi has had a number of interactions with doctors, lawyers and businessmen."