Gujarat Elections 2017 | War of words: Who should claim the throne in Gujarat?

State Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki claimed on Tuesday that all sections of the society were unhappy with the ruling BJP and the party would be reduced to 50 seats in the Assembly elections.

"The BJP is talking about winning 150 seats. Mark my words, the 1 will disappear from 150 and it will be reduced to 50 seats," Solanki said during a panel discussion at Zee News' Game of Gujarat.

The programme also featured deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, state BJP president Jitu Vaghani, and senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia.

Taking on BJP's claims on development, Solanki questioned the need for the party to count its achievements if it had done good work in the past 22 years.

Nitin Patel countered the same, saying unprecedented development had taken place in the state under its rule.

"We have built schools, hospitals, medical colleges, roads and are supplying power to every village. If this is not development, what is?" he questioned.

Congress leader Modhwadia said if development had taken place, the state would not be faring so poorly on human development indices.

The leaders also got into a war of words with Nitin Patel saying that the Congress was struggling to put up candidates on all seats and had to take help from outside, and Bharasinh Solanki responding with the jibe that his party worked in a democratic manner.

"The Congress is in a pitiable state, and I haven't seen it in a worse position. The over 100-year-old party was not in a position to even field candidates from all seats, and had to seek help from Hardik (Patel) and Alpesh (Thakor).

The party even bowed before Jignesh Mevani and did not put up a candidate against him," Patel said.

Solanki responded to Patel's comments saying that unlike the BJP, the Congress worked in a democratic manner and put up candidates based on feedback from various sections.

When the moderator asked the reason for BJP to issue as many as six lists of candidates for the Gujarat elections, Vaghani responded, "The BJP announced its lists first. The Congress was not in a position to even declare its list."

Solanki accused BJP of betraying the middle class, which had voted, note and support to it, with Demonetization.

Modhwadia chipped in by reminding the BJP about its stunning defeat in the 2015 district and taluka panchayat elections, saying, "Demonetization and GST happened after that. There are many voters who are unhappy with these decisions, and will teach the BJP a lesson in the upcoming polls."

Vaghani, however, described the BJP's string of victories in different states as a proof of people's support to the note ban move.

When the state BJP chief accused the Congress of dividing voters on the basis of caste, the Congress president hit back saying that it was BJP president Amit Shah who had said publicly that his party would contest the polls on the issue of Narmada and OBCs.

Patel responded by accusing Congress leaders of competing hard with each other to spread lies, while Vaghani accused the opposition party of delaying the Narmada Dam project by several decades.