NEW YORK (TIP): “In Gujarat, Congress Party scored a moral victory, a BJP bastion that has been turned into a Hindutva laboratory of polarization and bigotry. Despite tremendous odds, Congress Party increased its legislative seats to 77 and the vote share to 45%”, said George Abraham, Vice-Chairman of the newly reconstituted Indian Overseas Congress, USA.

IOC congratulates Mr. Rahul Gandhi for conducting a statesman like a campaign and exposing the fallacy of the ‘Gujarat Development model’ which promotes crony capitalism at the expense of its ordinary citizens”. Gandhi said “The propaganda was good, marketing was good, but it was hollow within. I saw it there (in Gujarat).” He also underlined that in his tweet after the verdict, in which he said that the Congress “fought anger with dignity” and that “the Congress’ greatest strength is its decency and courage”.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister was engaged in once again invoking the religious symbolism or exploiting a statement from an opposition party leader or even implying that the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of colluding with Pakistan to fix the Gujarat election. It was indeed a low point of the campaign, however; Modi may have succeeded in diverting the focus away from ‘development’ to these extraneous issues.

This election has indeed exposed the rural and urban divide in the State that took a beating with misguided demonetization policy and messy implementation of GST that hurt the farmers and the trading community disastrously. Congress may have lost the election; however, Rahul Gandhi was able to drive home the message that those 22 years of BJP rule has left most of the rural folks far behind while favoring the Industrialists and the urban upper class.

Apparently, Rahul Gandhi had an uphill battle; however, he has certainly helped himself changing the perception among the voting public that he is a caring person who is willing to listen and learn. BJP had to resort to an all-out campaign with suspending the winter session of the parliament while deploying almost the entire team from the central cabinet along with total support from national and local institutions together with the RSS cadre to protect Gujarat from falling into the opposition ranks.

Gujarat election may also show that Modi may be vulnerable 2019 with rural areas across the country are struggling, and joblessness among the youth are increasing with more younger leaders like Harkesh Patel, Alpesh Thakur and Jignesh Movani may emerge to challenge the status-quo.

Finally, we respect the decision of the voters to give another term to BJP manifesting the strength and resilience of India‘s democracy. It is vital that the Institutions of democracy that were created under the Nehruvian vision remain strong and resolute in defending freedom and voter’s right to choose their leaders. The current allegations against the tampering of the EVM machines should be thoroughly investigated and the integrity of the election process ought to be preserved.