Modi's "divisive" campaign led to 7% Gujarat Hindu voters' shift to BJP after November-end till polling day
By Our Representative
Top scholars of the Delhi-based research institute, Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS),
Shreyas Sardesai and Sanjay Kumar, in their incisive analysis of
Gujarat elections have revealed that, between November-end and
mid-December, there was a massive 7% shift in favour of Hindu voters’
support to the BJP, especially in the urban areas.
Based on the surveys Lokniti, CSDS, carried out among Gujarat votes, the scholars say,
“We believe that it is quite obviously Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
campaigning, which was for the most part controversial and divisive,
that played a role in turning a section of voters towards the BJP, thus
saving it from a possible defeat.”
Pointing out that between
addressed as many as 30 rallies across Gujarat between November 27 and
December 11, a virtual carpet bombing, the scholars says, “This is the
period when the Prime Minister, who is hugely liked in Gujarat (by 72%
of those surveyed, post-poll), campaigned extensively in the state.”
They
say, it is in this period that most of Modi’s “speeches, especially the
ones made at rallies post-December 5, focussed on divisive themes.
Mandir-Masjid, Mughals, Pakistan, Ahmed Patel, Salman Nizami, etc.”,
calling it “classic dog-whistle politics by using coded language that
might have stoked passions among some sections of the electorate.”
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http://www.counterview.net/2017/12/navsarjan-gujarat-assembly-elections.html
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