<p>With the first round of Assembly polls in March won, the BJP has set its eyes on home turf Gujarat and party-ruled Himachal Pradesh that go to polls during the end of the year, but challenges persist.</p>.<p>While Congress is in a disarray in both states, AAP, buoyant after Punjab victory, is trying hard to emerge as the new challenger, and claimed its internal survey in Gujarat is giving it 58 seats.</p>.<p>BJP, which had not performed well in the rural-farmer belt of Gujarat in the last Assembly polls, is making outreach to farmers. In the last one month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Gujarat twice and actively wooed the tribal community as well in Dahod. Winning Gujarat is key to BJP’s perception battle with the state being the home to both Modi and Amit Shah, where Congress had confined them to 99 seats in last polls.</p>.<p>The Congress triumvirate of Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakore and Jignesh Mevani, which helped it pose a challenge to BJP is no more a united force. While Thakore moved to BJP, Mevani is yet to formally join Congress and Hardik on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the party’s style of functioning.</p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/bjp-mounts-poll-campaign-in-himachal-pradesh-1099847.html" target="_blank">BJP mounts poll campaign in Himachal Pradesh</a></strong></p>.<p>Congress, which had won 77 seats in the last Assembly polls, has lost most of its MLAs to BJP in the last five years. BJP recently held a bike rally in nearly half of the 182 constituencies in Gujarat to augment its campaign to reach out to people, while party chief J P Nadda has been on a four-day visit to rouse party workers in the state.</p>.<p>Aware of the challenge from the ‘fatigue factor’ in the state where it has been in power uninterruptedly for 24 years, BJP went for a change of Chief Minister last year from Vijay Rupani to Bhupendra Patel.</p>.<p>Amid the confusion over Congress wooing Patidar leader Naresh Patel, former Congress MLA and prominent leader in the region Indranil Rajguru on Thursday <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/national-politics/former-congress-mla-joins-aap-in-gujarats-rajkot-1100733.html" target="_blank">joined AAP in Rajkot</a>, hailing Arvind Kejriweal’s party as the “best option” to uproot the ruling BJP in Gujarat. He alleged that Congress has lost its ability to become an alternative “lacks the will to defeat the BJP.”</p>.<p>AAP’s Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann during their two-day visit in the state early this month offered prayers at Swaminarayan temple in Ahmedabad and appealed to the people to give their party “one opportunity”.</p>.<p>With the Congress wooing Naresh Patel, BJP reached out to Kadwa patels with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event at the community deity Umiya Mata’s temple on Gathila Ram Navami. Congress Working President Hardik Patel as well as BJP’s Chief Minister are from Kadva patel community. Congress launched “Azadi Gaurav Yatra” from the Gandhi Ashram on April 6 that will cover five districts in Gujarat.</p>.<p>While all parties are facing internal dissent and poaching by rivals in Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh, the Congress’ cup of woes is overflowing.</p>.<p>In Himachal Pradesh, Congress will be fighting polls this year for the first time in the last three decades without the dominating shadow of former Chief Minister and party patriarch Virbhadra Singh, who passed away last year, leaving the party bereft of an effective second rung of leadership.</p>.<p>There has been a strong buzz about BJP replacing Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur with Anurag Thakur on the lines of what they had done in Uttarakhand. BJP denied this after AAP claimed such a change was indeed in the offing but a re-thinking cannot be ruled out in next eight months as the party is facing a huge anti-incumbency there.</p>.<p>On Wednesday Harmel Dhiman, a national executive member of the BJP's Scheduled Caste Morcha joined AAP “impressed with” Kejriwal’s work and ideology and “fed up with” BJP. This was days after AAP Himachal Pradesh president Anup Kesari along with some other leaders joined the BJP in the national capital.</p>.<p>While traditionally, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have alternated power between BJP and Congress, AAP is emerging as a player even as the Gujarat BJP dismissed Kerjiwal as “mayor of a large city” and Himachal Pradesh BJP mocked AAP over a “flop rally”.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>
<p>With the first round of Assembly polls in March won, the BJP has set its eyes on home turf Gujarat and party-ruled Himachal Pradesh that go to polls during the end of the year, but challenges persist.</p>.<p>While Congress is in a disarray in both states, AAP, buoyant after Punjab victory, is trying hard to emerge as the new challenger, and claimed its internal survey in Gujarat is giving it 58 seats.</p>.<p>BJP, which had not performed well in the rural-farmer belt of Gujarat in the last Assembly polls, is making outreach to farmers. In the last one month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Gujarat twice and actively wooed the tribal community as well in Dahod. Winning Gujarat is key to BJP’s perception battle with the state being the home to both Modi and Amit Shah, where Congress had confined them to 99 seats in last polls.</p>.<p>The Congress triumvirate of Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakore and Jignesh Mevani, which helped it pose a challenge to BJP is no more a united force. While Thakore moved to BJP, Mevani is yet to formally join Congress and Hardik on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the party’s style of functioning.</p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/bjp-mounts-poll-campaign-in-himachal-pradesh-1099847.html" target="_blank">BJP mounts poll campaign in Himachal Pradesh</a></strong></p>.<p>Congress, which had won 77 seats in the last Assembly polls, has lost most of its MLAs to BJP in the last five years. BJP recently held a bike rally in nearly half of the 182 constituencies in Gujarat to augment its campaign to reach out to people, while party chief J P Nadda has been on a four-day visit to rouse party workers in the state.</p>.<p>Aware of the challenge from the ‘fatigue factor’ in the state where it has been in power uninterruptedly for 24 years, BJP went for a change of Chief Minister last year from Vijay Rupani to Bhupendra Patel.</p>.<p>Amid the confusion over Congress wooing Patidar leader Naresh Patel, former Congress MLA and prominent leader in the region Indranil Rajguru on Thursday <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/national-politics/former-congress-mla-joins-aap-in-gujarats-rajkot-1100733.html" target="_blank">joined AAP in Rajkot</a>, hailing Arvind Kejriweal’s party as the “best option” to uproot the ruling BJP in Gujarat. He alleged that Congress has lost its ability to become an alternative “lacks the will to defeat the BJP.”</p>.<p>AAP’s Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann during their two-day visit in the state early this month offered prayers at Swaminarayan temple in Ahmedabad and appealed to the people to give their party “one opportunity”.</p>.<p>With the Congress wooing Naresh Patel, BJP reached out to Kadwa patels with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event at the community deity Umiya Mata’s temple on Gathila Ram Navami. Congress Working President Hardik Patel as well as BJP’s Chief Minister are from Kadva patel community. Congress launched “Azadi Gaurav Yatra” from the Gandhi Ashram on April 6 that will cover five districts in Gujarat.</p>.<p>While all parties are facing internal dissent and poaching by rivals in Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh, the Congress’ cup of woes is overflowing.</p>.<p>In Himachal Pradesh, Congress will be fighting polls this year for the first time in the last three decades without the dominating shadow of former Chief Minister and party patriarch Virbhadra Singh, who passed away last year, leaving the party bereft of an effective second rung of leadership.</p>.<p>There has been a strong buzz about BJP replacing Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur with Anurag Thakur on the lines of what they had done in Uttarakhand. BJP denied this after AAP claimed such a change was indeed in the offing but a re-thinking cannot be ruled out in next eight months as the party is facing a huge anti-incumbency there.</p>.<p>On Wednesday Harmel Dhiman, a national executive member of the BJP's Scheduled Caste Morcha joined AAP “impressed with” Kejriwal’s work and ideology and “fed up with” BJP. This was days after AAP Himachal Pradesh president Anup Kesari along with some other leaders joined the BJP in the national capital.</p>.<p>While traditionally, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have alternated power between BJP and Congress, AAP is emerging as a player even as the Gujarat BJP dismissed Kerjiwal as “mayor of a large city” and Himachal Pradesh BJP mocked AAP over a “flop rally”.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>
