Modi, Shah visits to Gujarat signal early Assembly polls

After his announcing in late August of his intention to visit his native Gujarat more frequently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will celebrate his birthday on September 17 with the tribals of the State.

However, the irate Dalit community, which constitutes 7-8 per cent of the State’s population, are not amused. Under the banner of the Dalit Hitrakshak Sangh, they are organising a “Dalit Ekta Sammelan” in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

Meanwhile, BJP President Amit Shah, who will meet members of an angry Patel community on Thursday, will also address a party

mahasammelan in the tribal-dominated Tapi district in southern Gujarat on the same day. The move is an apparent bid to retain tribal votes, which had largely drifted to the party from the Congress in 2014.

Modi, who will turn 66 on September 17, will, as in the past, seek his mother Hiraba’s blessings here, before meeting the tribals and addressing a public meeting in Navsari district of South Gujarat. This will be his third visit to Gujarat in 20 days, the second being his visit to Sarangpur last week to pay the respects to the late Pramukh Swami Maharaj of the Swaminarayan Sect, with which a large number of Patels are associated.

In November, he is likely to inaugurate the World Kabaddi Championship in Maninagar, Ahmedabad, which used to be his Assembly constituency. Again, in January, he is expected to inaugurate the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investment Summit, 2017.

Clearly, Assembly polls are not far away. If anything, the BJP and its government seem to be bracing for early elections, originally scheduled for end-2017. Congress veteran, Ahmed Patel, secretary to party chief Sonia Gandhi, has already hinted at this.

Amid reports of the BJP trying to split the Hardik Patel led-Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), the ruling party is organising a massive show of strength on Thursday in Surat, the epicentre of the Patel temblor, to ensure that its prosperous and influential support base is still intact.

All Patel leaders of the BJP have been roped in to make the “Patidar Abhivadan Samaroh” a success. Patels constitute about 15 per cent of the voters.

Meanwhile, the Alpesh Thakore-led OBCs, suspecting that the BJP and its government could slice off the reservation pie in favour of the Patels, have also been up in arms for months. The OBCs comprise more than 40 per cent of the Gujarati population, and are the largest community of voters.