PPrime Minister Narendra Modi reached Bhuj on August 28 to inaugurate the Narmada Canal, which brings water from South Gujarat to dry Kutch. Assembly elections are due in the state in December and later at a rally, surprisingly, he stoked the old frenzy of conspiracies to defame Gujarat after the 2002 riots, when he was chief minister (2001–14). This was unusual for the PM, a deviation from the script of the past few years where he had stopped talking about the past and focused more on future opportunities for the state.
PM Modi as CM Patel watches for crowd at Khadi Utsav event; Kejriwal with AAP leaders during the tricolor yatra in Mehsana in June; (Photo: ANI)
The PM’s two-day visit included a road show in Bhuj (his fourth in the state since March), the inauguration of the Atal Bridge for pedestrians across the Sabarmati river and attending a Khadi festival event, where he met 7,500 women artisans. spun charkha with him. from all over Gujarat. All this hectic activity, of course, came in the backdrop of two important developments in the state. Barely 10 days back, on August 19, there was a major reshuffle of the state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel. Then there was the controversial Independence Day ‘gesture’ from the state government, in which 11 people involved in the gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and the killing of 14 members of her family in the 2002 communal attacks were released. A BJP source says that Modi was engaging with state leaders to take stock of the outcome of the two incidents.
On August 19, CM Patel snatched important portfolios from two of his ministers. Rajendra Trivedi suffered loss of revenue while Purnesh Modi had to give up roads and buildings. No official explanation has been given for the move, but a BJP source categorically stated that when it comes to “incompetence and shielding the guilty” as elections near, the leadership is in a mood to give the opposition a chance to point fingers. I was not. Trivedi, number 2 in the cabinet, had a penchant for live-streaming his “raids” on government officials (the discussion he rubbed many people the wrong way) while Purnesh Modi tried to shield a contractor responsible for the faulty. are in the dock for. work on bridges. However, both ministers have several less important portfolios.
This is not the first time such action has been taken. In March, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had asked the CM to sack his personal assistant, Dhrumil Patel. Then, in July, state BJP president CR Patil was asked to sack assistant Sudhanshu Mehta after receiving complaints of corruption.
Gehlot’s plan for Gujarat Congress is to expose BJP government’s “failures: in health and education”
The BJP has had an uninterrupted stint in Gujarat for nearly three decades, but these years have been hit by anti-incumbency and corruption scandals. This election still has a lot for him – Modi, whose image shines as bright as ever, a strong party organisation, a relatively efficient administration and most importantly, an opposition Congress that is in a shambles. The past has been largely due to BJP poaching at regular intervals; Many senior leaders, including 13 of the 77 Congress MLAs, have crossed over in the last four-and-a-half years. Former MLA and former AICC member Naresh Rawal was scheduled to leave on August 18.
CM Patel, sitting in the hot seat for less than a year, has tried to establish himself as a people’s man. These include a three per cent hike in dearness allowance for state employees in the election season and 1 kg of pulses at subsidized rates to 7.1 million ration card holders registered under the National Food Security Act in 250 taluks. “We have developed a work culture where people feel less upset and their issues are resolved at the earliest,” he said in his Independence Day address.
Gehlot meets Gujarat Congress leaders; (Photo: Nandan Dave)
As always, on the organizational front, the BJP has set an ambitious target of winning at least 150 seats (one more than the state record set by then Congress CM Madhavsinh Solanki in 1985). State president CR Patil told party workers in Ahmedabad on August 21 that “the BJP is working round the clock to achieve the target of winning all the 182 seats.” The state’s top three leaders—Union ministers Amit Shah, Mansukh Mandaviya and Purushottam Rupala—are busy in Delhi, the grapevine being that Patil, who is known as the “Super CM” because of his influence on Bhupendrabhai. can emerge. CM candidate if the party breaks its previous record of 127 seats. Patil, however, ruled out the possibility. “Bhupendrabhai will be our CM face,” he says plainly.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are trying to sell the ‘Rajasthan model’ and the ‘Delhi model’ respectively to the voters. The Congress is banking on its 2017 campaign chief Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot to try its luck again. Gehlot is the election in-charge this time too and had camped in Gujarat for three days last week (August 18-20). He has held talks with party functionaries in Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Ahmedabad, but the party is holding on to the election manifesto. An initiative called ‘Bolo Sarkar’ has been launched under which Congress workers are expected to hold around 2,000 meetings in rural areas to seek suggestions from people. Party sources say that after a review by the high command, many better suggestions may be included in the manifesto.
A Gujarat Congress leader says the BJP government’s “failures” on the education and health front will be looked into. Gehlot wants the party people to highlight the Rajasthan government’s plan to introduce a ‘right to health’ bill versus Gujarat’s handling of the post-Covid situation. Mimicking the ‘Chiranjeevi Swasthya Bima Yojana’ in Gujarat—the scheme that provides health cover to every family in Rajasthan—will also be a hot topic during the campaign. “It was very painful to see the situation in Gujarat during the pandemic. Despite being in power for 27 years, the government did nothing to save precious lives,” Gehlot told reporters.
As election in-charge, Gehlot had won 77 seats for the Congress in 2017, his best performance since 1995. The party had then also given a catchy election slogan, ‘Vikas Gando Thayo Che’, playing. On Modi’s favorite ‘Vikas’ mantra, but it was not enough to derail the saffron party. The decline of the Congress in the last two years may be too much for Gehlot to recover. Many big leaders of the party have changed their camp and joined the BJP. But Gehlot is still up for a rumble; Speaking to reporters in Ahmedabad on August 20, he called PM Modi an “ace actor”.
bWhat worries the Congress more than the BJP is that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) may steal their constituency. AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is focusing on Saurashtra and South Gujarat region this time. He has promised to replicate his “Delhi model” of providing quality government school education in Gujarat. On August 16, at a town hall in Bhuj, Kejriwal made a plan for this, which included opening new government schools, auditing private schools, freezing the fee structure and making contract teachers’ jobs permanent.
Kejriwal is also doing his signature freebies-with-riders, which include 300 free electricity a month, monthly unemployment benefits of Rs 3,000 to youth and Rs 1,000 to women above 18. AAP has also got some 1,100 locals on roll to spread the party’s message on social media platforms. The Delhi chief minister has even asked probationary teachers and policemen to covertly campaign for the AAP. “The policemen are demanding higher grade pay. Work for us, you help bring the government and we will pay you more.”
Kejriwal’s words are being talked about a lot, which is not surprising given that the Congress is in trouble. Former Union minister Tushar Choudhary calls the APP “the B-team of the BJP”, while former state Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia is telling anyone that his party promised free electricity to farmers in May. AAP state president Gopal Italia hit back saying that the Congress should first implement its promises in the states where it is ruled, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. BJP is enjoying the uproar from its side. As a senior state leader says, “If the AAP cuts Congress votes, it will improve our margins.”