Forget Uttar Pradesh. The real
saffron stronghold is now right on the outskirts of Delhi.
The Haryana assembly elections have confirmed what the
Lok Sabha elections hinted at: Gurgaon is now BJP central.
On Sunday, BJP's Umesh Aggarwal won by nearly 106106,
with a margin of over 80,000 votes when compared to INLD's Gopi Chand Gahlot
who got a mere 22011 votes. The Congress' candidate Dharambir Gaba was at a
dismal third place.
The story is distinctly similar to
what happened in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. BJP's Rao Inderjit Singh won 644780 votes which were 49
percent of the votes, while INLD's Zakir Hussain got nearly half of Singh's
vote share with 370058 votes, a mere 29 percent of the votes polled. INC's
Dharam Pal got 11 percent with 133713 votes in his favour, while debutant AAP's
leader Yogendra Yadav -- the star candidate who garnered huge media attention
-- got only 79452 votes which was a meagre 7 percent.
Rao Inderjit Singh was a former Congress member and
minister in the UPA-1, who switched to the BJP ahead of the polls. There may
have been doubts as to whether it was a vote for him or for the party. But the
Assembly outcome now confirms that Gurgaon is indeed fully behind the BJP.
In both elections, it is evident that the city voted
overwhelmingly for the BJP -- or rather, to be accurate, Narendra
Modi
According to this report in the Times
of India, even hardcore "BJP voters in the DLF area were not
even sure about the names of their local candidate", a fact that didn't
make any difference to the final outcome. The victor Umesh Aggarwal gave due to
credit to the Modi wave for his win, saying "It had to happen. Gurgaon had
just one name in mind — Modi."
And it wasn't just the main Gurgaon city constituency that
voted for the BJP, but also the other three other constituencies that come
under the Gurgaon district: Badshahpur, Sohna and Pataudi.
In Badshahpur, BJP's Narbir
Singh won by a comfortable margin of 20,000 votes against his rival Rakesh
Daultabad from INLD. In Pataudi, voters chose BJP's Bimal Chaudhary who got
close to 75,000 votes, well ahead of INLD rival Ganga Ram who managed to get
only 36,000 votes. In Sohna, BJP's Tejpal Tawar defeated INLD's Kishore Yadav.
While Yadav got 29250 votes, Tawar got 53,797 votes.
Nearly all the victory margins were huge, and over again
the winners acknowledged the Modi factor. Pataudi's winner Chaudhary told TOI, "I
thank Modiji and Rao Inderjit Singh for trusting me. I promise to work for the
neglected Pataudi." Interestingly he too had quit the Congress along with
Singh to join the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha. And now with the Pataudi ticket
and subsequent victory, clearly Chaudhary made the right choice.
The 4-0 sweep by the BJP is significant given that this
election saw Gurgaon's elite gated community come out and vote in big numbers;
the voting percentage in the city stood at 66.1 percent this year, which is
impressive given its SEC profile (though it was significantly lower than the 76
percent voting seen in Sohna).
As Firstpost's Debobrat Ghose pointed out in
this earlier article, the problem
with Gurgaon is that "the residents of its skyscrapers, lead a cocooned
existence within their gated communities supplied with own water and
electricity, are oblivious to the lack of these basic amenities elsewhere. Thus
they are notorious for not exercising their franchise."
But the new "aspirational class," wanted a
change this year and with PM Modi leading the rallies in the city, many came
out to vote. Some of the residents of Gurgaon that Ghose spoke to made it clear
that this year they were sticking to the BJP.
Shahana Rajesh, who works with an international school in
Gurgaon, toldFirstpost, “The
urban voters of Gurgaon want change. With Modi as PM at the Centre, Haryana
also deserves a break, which will benefit Gurgaon." Her husband V Rajesh
too backed her up saying, "It may look grand from outside or in business
centres, but residential areas lack basic amenities like roads. One has to
manage independent water and power supply. Residents end up paying heavily for
power backups. It's time to shake things up."
"Modi’s rally will positively impact urban voters,
who are looking for a change. A positive change is the need of the hour.
Gurgaon needs to have proper law and order, traffic system and civic
discipline, which are missing from this hi-tech city," said retired Maj
Gen Dhruv Katoch.
In the early 2000s, Gurgaon was touted as India Rising's
poster city, a promise that remained unfulfilled. Despite fancy malls and
sky-scrapers, basic amenities are still scarce, including water, electricity,
roads. Beyond the glitz, Gurgaon is sort of like a urban/rural jungle with
countless problems. Hence, the overwhelming support for the BJP is hardly
surprising. PM Modi has made 'development' his signature word, and of the kind
that will undoubtedly benefit those living in the gated-communities the most.
And as long there is hope that Modi will deliver on that
achhe din dream, Gurgaon will remain fully dyed in saffron.
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