Ahmedabad: Besides the two major political parties - Congress and BJP - many smaller parties are going to jump into the electoral fray in the December assembly polls. The most prominent among them are the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Jan Vikalp floated by former Congress leader and union minister Shankersinh Vaghela, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Janata Dal (United) faction of Sharad Yadav, Samajwadi party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
AAP, which set up its unit after its landslide victory in Delhi assembly polls, had earlier announced it would not to contest the Assembly elections on the ground it did not have enough organisational infrastructure required to fight assembly polls. It was on this ground that it had avoided contesting municipal and district panchayat polls in 2015. Its state in-charge and Delhi MLA Gulab Singh Yadav had said that the party's priority was to strengthen organisational unis in all districts and assembly constituencies before jumping into the electoral fray. But the party made a U-turn after it replaced Yadav by Gopal Rai a few months ago. Rai has announced that the party would contest elections from selected constituencies where it is strong. But the party's changed stance is being viewed by political analysts as also congress leaders to divide the non-BJP votes and help the BJP.
Former Congress leader and union minister Shankersinh Vaghela has floated "Jan Vikalp" (people's alternative) after quitting the Congress in August this year. Vaghela, who commanded a faction in the Congress, has lost his political position after leaving the Congress. This is because all 13 MLAs who left the Congress with him have joined the BJP. Having a strong RSS background, the 78-year-old veteran politician who as a BJP MLA had led a rebellion against the BJP government in 1996 and formed his own government with the Congress support, is now finding himself all alone. He tried to have an alliance with AAP and NCP but both the parties have spurned his offer. He will now be fielding independent candidates and has demanded tractor as symbol for his candidates.
The Sharad Yadav faction of JDU which stood solidly with the Congress in RS polls resulting in victory of Ahmed Patel, has called for a 'mahagathbandan’ (grand alliance) of all opposition parties on the lines of that in Bihar. Its state as well as acting national president Chhotubhai Vasava says BJP can be defeated only with the combined strength of all opposition parties. The lone JDU MLA, Vasava is a very influential tribal leader. It was his vote that converted Ahmed Patel's likely defeat into a victory and boosted the image of the Congress all over the country thereby sending a message that BJP can be defeated if opposition parties grouped together. Vasava is demanding three seats from the Congress and promised that he will support the Congress in the entire tribal belt. The Congress had, in principle, accepted his demand of three seats. In fact, Vasava has always been demanding for a coalition with the Congress but it was the latter that turned down the offer. With Vasava's support, Congress can immensely benefit not only on seats reserved for tribals but also on other seats where tribal voters are in sizeable strength.
SP has no base except among the migrants from UP and Bihar, in Surat and in industrial towns of south Gujarat. In 2012, SP contested 68 seats but unsuccessfully. However, it polled around 16,000 votes in some of the constituencies in South Gujarat that caused defeat of Congress candidates in those seats. Yadav had announced that SP would contest on its own again if Congress does not accept its demand.
BSP, meanwhile, has not approached any party for electoral alliance. It had been fielding candidates on all 182 seats since 2007 but polled not more than one per cent of votes.