Ahmadabad: In the run-up to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat, the alliance between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is gearing up to challenge the electoral dominance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Meanwhile, the ruling party remains confident that the opposition coalition will have little impact on its electoral prospects.

The Congress-AAP alliance is determined to provide a strong competition and prevent the fragmentation of anti-BJP votes. In both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP swept all 26 parliamentary seats in Gujarat, which is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The BJP secured over 60 percent of the vote share in both elections. Similarly, in the 2022 Gujarat assembly elections, the Congress and AAP contested separately, leading to a division of opposition votes and a landslide victory for the BJP, which secured 156 out of 182 seats in the state.

Acknowledging the impact of vote division, a senior state Congress leader revealed that the party lost in over 40 assembly seats due to the split between the Congress and AAP. Notably, four Congress MLAs and one AAP legislator resigned in the last four months.

All 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat are set to go to polls in a single phase on May 7, with results scheduled to be announced on June 4. Under the seat-sharing arrangement, the Congress will contest 24 seats while the AAP will field candidates in Bharuch and Bhavnagar.

State AAP leader Manoj Sorathiya expressed confidence that after a decade of BJP rule in Gujarat, voters would seek alternatives. During a recent visit to Vadodara, AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged voters to support AAP candidates, emphasizing their commitment to addressing Gujarat's issues in the Parliament.

The Gujarat Congress is optimistic about the alliance's potential to prevent vote division and provide a formidable challenge to the ruling BJP. Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi highlighted the need to consolidate anti-BJP votes, citing past losses due to vote fragmentation.

However, the BJP remains undeterred by the opposition coalition. Gujarat BJP president C R Paatil asserted that the alliance would not impact the party's prospects, considering its consistent performance with over 50 percent of the vote share in recent elections.

While political analysts anticipate that the Congress-AAP alliance will mitigate vote division, they believe it may fall short of posing a serious challenge to the BJP in Modi's home state. Despite efforts to consolidate anti-BJP votes, the Modi factor remains significant in Gujarat, where the BJP has consistently secured over 60 percent of the vote share in past Lok Sabha polls.

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