Ahmedabad. Senior Congress leader Paresh Dhanani on Sunday said that the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) defeat in the Gujarat Assembly elections will hurt the traditional urban and semi-urban votes of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and ultimately benefit the Congress party. will arrive.

Dhanani claimed that AAP does not have a rural base and will challenge the BJP in 66 urban and semi-urban assembly seats which the Congress has not won in the last 30 years. He also claimed that the anti-government wave was at its peak in the state and people were fed up with the BJP’s “misrule”.

Importantly, the 182-member Gujarat Assembly elections are due later this year and the state is expected to see a three-way contest between the BJP, Congress and AAP.

Dhanani said, “Congress will benefit the most from the entry of a third force in Gujarat politics in the form of you and Arvind Kejriwal.” We have faced defeat in Gujarat for the last 27 years, as we failed to win 66 urban and semi-urban seats in the state. In the last 30 years, out of these 66 seats, we have managed to win only one Rajkot seat twice.

Dhanani, former Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said, “In urban areas, there will be a direct contest between the BJP and AAP as the Congress has failed to win these seats in the past years. The contest will have the least impact on the Congress.” will

The 46-year-old Dhanani claimed that the urban seat in the polls would be divided between the two parties and that the division would ultimately benefit the Congress. In support of his claim, he cited the previous Surat Municipal Corporation election, where AAP had won 27 seats. He said, ‘These 27 seats have never been with the Congress. The BJP lost these seats to the AAP and had little impact on the Congress. The situation will remain the same in the upcoming elections.

Dhanani, a three-time MLA from Amreli, said, “If AAP wins the urban seat in Gujarat, the ruling BJP will suffer and it will not affect the chances of the Congress.” He said that Aam Aadmi Party and Kejriwal do not have base in rural areas and like last time rural voters will stay with Congress. AAP will not be able to win over Congress voters in rural areas.

Dhanani said, “Our party won rural seats in the 2017 elections. We got 78 seats, barring a few from rural areas.

Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dhanani said since the BJP has been in power in the state for the past 27 years and at the Center for eight years, it cannot hold the Congress responsible for the sufferings of the people.

The Congress leader said that his party is grateful to Kejriwal who has once again drawn attention to the issues. He said, “One thing is clear from the arrival of Kejriwal that instead of Hindutva, education, health, unemployment, inflation, roads and other issues have come prominently in front of the urban voters.”

Dhanani claimed that the Congress had raised the same issues, but was not believed by the urban electorate in particular because of the lies spread against his party.

Notably, in the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP won 99 seats while the Congress won 77 seats. The BJP won mostly in urban areas, while the Congress fared better in rural areas.

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Tags: AAP, Gujarat BJP, Gujarat Congress