Gujarat assembly polls: "BJP will form govt with more than two-thirds majority", says Vijay Rupani

Rajkot (Gujarat) [India], November 30 (ANI): Gujarat's former Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader on Tuesday forecasted the party's win in State Assembly elections by saying that BJP will form the government with more than two-thirds majority.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, former Gujarat CM said, "BJP is fully confident of winning the Gujarat elections and the party will form the government in the state with more than two-thirds majority," adding that BJP will perform better this time than in 2017 Gujarat elections.
"The Bharatiya Janata Party will return to the helm for the seventh time. The 2022 elections are different from previous elections as Congress is struggling for its existence which was very strong in 2017, due to the Patidar movement, and the Thakur Samaj movement. Then independent candidate and Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani was also very active in the elections," Rupani said. "Congress managed to win 77 seats in 2017 and we halted at 99," he added.
"This time the BJP will return back to power as the State has not witnessed any movement for five years, Patidar movement ended, many people joined Bharatiya Janata Party, Hardik Patel himself joined BJP, more than 15 Congress MLAs joined the BJP, Alpesh Thakur, spearheading the movement for Thakur community joined BJP," former CM told ANI. "The Congress Party is fighting for its existence," he reiterated.
On his decision to not contest next month's Gujarat Assembly polls, Rupani said, "Only BJP can do this because BJP is like a family. BJP's ideology is that new faces should get a chance. In order to give a chance to other people, we all together decided that we will not contest elections and new people should get a chance."
Earlier, this month Vijay Rupani and senior party leaders like, Nitin Patel and Bhupendrasinh Chudasama decided not to contest the elections.
Rupani, who was Gujarat's Chief Minister from 2016 to 2021, said he had conveyed to the party leadership that he will not contest the polls.
"I worked as Chief Minister for five years with everyone's cooperation. In these polls, responsibility should be given to new workers. I won't contest the poll, I sent a letter to seniors and conveyed it to Delhi. We'll work to make the chosen candidate win," he said.
To a question about his former home constituency Rajkot, Rupani said, "BJP will win all four seats in Rajkot and with a good margin." "Rajkot is BJP's stronghold," he added.
The Assembly elections in Gujarat are scheduled to be held in two phases on December 1 and December 5, whose results will be declared on December 8.
The party has been in power for the last 27 years with Modi being the state's longest-serving chief minister.
This time, the party under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and CR Patil is aiming at getting its highest seat tally exceeding 140.
The state has been a BJP stronghold for long and the party has set its sights on returning to power for the seventh term. Modi has been Gujarat's longest-serving chief minister from 2001 till 2014.
However, it faces a stiff electoral challenge from the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which named Isudan Gadhvi its chief ministerial candidate.
The Congress also hopes to put its best electoral foot forward to unseat the BJP. (ANI)