Ground View - Gujarat. How far will Modi swing BJP’s fortunes?

The BJP will be launching a star-studded campaign in Gujarat with Prime Minister Narendra Modi making his show-stopper appearance on November 27.

A day before that, the entire top party brass — including Cabinet Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, and Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje — converge in the poll-bound State to address public rallies in each of the 89 Assembly constituencies where polling is scheduled in the first phase of elections (December 9).

The political criticality of Assembly elections in the PM’s home State is underlined by the mega show being put up by the ruling party where the first punchline against the chief opponent, the Congress and its soon-to-be president Rahul Gandhi, is vikaasvad -versus- vanshvad (politics of development versus political dynasties).

The build-up to the PM’s election tour, during which he will address as many as eight public rallies strategically planned to encompass the entire State — from Kuchch to Saurashtra and Surat — starts on the morning of November 26. That day, every BJP worker in Gujarat is deputed to reach his designated polling-booth.

The “Modi stamp” is obvious when BJP workers throng each of the 50,000 polling booths in the State to participate in Mann ki Baat, Chai ke Saath, wherein the PM’s monthly address to the nation over radio is listened to over a cup of tea (also associated with Modi’s tea-seller beginnings).

On Thursday, Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani the party’s State in-charge Bhupendra Yadav announced, with much fanfare, the campaign programme. The launch theme is the Congress being “anti-development”.

“Modiji symbolises development. The Congress is most certainly anti-development. They have led a whole campaign attacking progress and development in Gujarat. They stopped the Sardar Sarovar project for decades. Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh opposed it in Parliament. People associate Modiji with roads, big infrastructure projects, electricity and progress in general. The Congress is the antithesis of it. It must be the only political party in the world which attacks development,” said Yadav with a reference to the Opposition’s Vikas gando thayo chhe (development has gone crazy) campaign which took the social media by storm earlier this year.

The keenness of the contest in Gujarat cannot be over-stated when the BJP is responding to Rahul Gandhi’s frequent visits to the State by roping in the entire Union Cabinet, BJP Chief Ministers and senior State leaders. The “outside” leaders will address public rallies simultaneously on a single day, after common party workers have already held a programme in each of the 50,000 polling booths.

Starting his tour on November 27, Modi will address a rally in Kuchch, from where he will fly to Jasdan in Saurashtra and Dhari in Amreli and conclude the day with a rally in Kamrej, Surat. Again, on November 29, he visits Morbi, Rajkot (Saurashtra), Prachi (Somnath), Bhavnagar and Navsari.

This is only the beginning of the campaign where everyone else plays second fiddle to Modi. The party is looking to paper over popular angst on issues ranging from GST implementation to demonetisation and falling agricultural prices.

The BJP believes what is still lacking despite its strong organisational presence, a deep communal divide that consolidates the majority vote against the Congress and its stronghold over administrative structure, will be fulfilled once Modi starts touring the State.