Battle for the bastion in Gujarat
7 min readPrime Minister Narendra Modi reached Bhuj on August 28 to inaugurate the Narmada canal that can convey water to parched Kutch from south Gujarat. The state is up for meeting polls in December and at a rally later, surprisingly, he introduced up the outdated bogey of conspiracies to defame Gujarat after the 2002 riots when he was chief minister (2001-14). This was uncommon for the PM, a deviation from the script of the previous couple of years the place he had stopped speaking concerning the previous and was centered extra on future alternatives for the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Bhuj on August 28 to inaugurate the Narmada canal that can convey water to parched Kutch from south Gujarat. The state is up for meeting polls in December and at a rally later, surprisingly, he introduced up the outdated bogey of conspiracies to defame Gujarat after the 2002 riots when he was chief minister (2001-14). This was uncommon for the PM, a deviation from the script of the previous couple of years the place he had stopped speaking concerning the previous and was centered extra on future alternatives for the state.
PM Modi waves to crowds on the Khadi Utsav occasion as CM Patelwatches; Kejriwal with AAP leaders at a tiranga yatra in Mehsana in June; (Photo: ANI)
The PM’s packed two-day tour additionally included a roadshow in Bhuj (his fourth within the state since March), the inauguration of the Atal Bridge for pedestrians on the Sabarmati river and becoming a member of a Khadi Utsav occasion the place he spun a charkha with 7,500 ladies artisans from throughout Gujarat. All this hectic exercise, in fact, got here towards the backdrop of two vital developments within the state. Barely 10 days earlier than, on August 19, there had been a significant overhaul of the state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel. Then there was the controversial Independence Day ‘gesture’ from the state authorities, releasing 11 individuals convicted of involvement within the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the homicide of 14 members of her household within the 2002 communal assaults. A BJP supply says Modi was in a huddle with state leaders, taking inventory of the fallout of the 2 developments.
On August 19, CM Patel had stripped two of his ministers of vital portfolios. Rajendra Trivedi misplaced income whereas Purnesh Modi had to surrender roads and buildings. No official rationalization has been given for the transfer however a BJP supply stated glibly that the management was in no temper to offer the opposition an opportunity to level fingers in terms of “inefficiency and shielding culprits” so near the election. Trivedi, the No. 2 within the cabinet, had a penchant for reside telecasting his “raids” on authorities officers (the thrill is he rubbed too many individuals the fallacious means) whereas Purnesh Modi is within the dock for shielding a contractor answerable for defective work on bridges. Both ministers, nonetheless, proceed to carry quite a few much less vital portfolios.
This isn’t the primary time such motion has been taken. In March, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had requested the CM to dismiss his private assistant, Dhrumil Patel. Then, in July, state BJP president C.R. Patil was requested to sack assistant Sudhanshu Mehta after receiving corruption complaints.
Gehlot’s plan for the Gujarat Congress is to spotlight the BJP authorities’s “failures: in well being and training
The BJP has had an uninterrupted stint in Gujarat for shut to a few many years, however the years have taken their toll with anti-incumbency and corruption scandals. They nonetheless have many issues going for them this election—Modi, whose picture shines vivid as normal, a powerful social gathering organisation, a comparatively environment friendly administration and, most significantly, an opposition Congress which is in a shambles. The final has largely been because of the BJP’s poaching at common intervals; many senior leaders, together with 13 of the Congress’s 77 MLAs, have crossed over prior to now 4 and a half years. Ex-legislator and former AICC member Naresh Raval was the newest to go on August 18.
CM Patel, who has been within the sizzling seat for lower than a yr, has tried to determine himself as a person of the individuals. The election season largesse has included a 3 per cent hike in dearness allowance for state staff and 1 kg pulses at concessional charges to 7.1 million ration card holders registered below the National Food Security Act in 250 talukas. “We have developed a work culture where people feel less troubled and their issues are resolved at the earliest,” he stated in his I-Day tackle.
Gehlot meets Gujarat Congress leaders; (Photo: Nandan Dave)
As all the time, on the organisational entrance, the BJP has set an bold goal of successful not less than 150 seats (yet another than the state report set by then CM Madhavsinh Solanki of the Congress in 1985). State president C.R. Patil seemed upbeat when he instructed social gathering employees in Ahmedabad on August 21 that “the BJP is working round the clock to achieve the aim of winning all 182 seats”. With three of the state’s top-rung leaders—Union ministers Amit Shah, Mansukh Mandaviya and Parshottam Rupala—preoccupied in Delhi, the grapevine has it that Patil, who is called “super CM” due to his affect over Bhupendrabhai, may emerge because the CM candidate if the social gathering breaks its earlier report of 127 seats. Patil has dominated out the likelihood, although. “Bhupendrabhai will be our CM face,” he says categorically.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are attempting to promote the ‘Rajasthan model’ and ‘Delhi model’ respectively to the voters. The Congress is banking on its 2017 marketing campaign chief, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, to spice up its fortunes once more. Gehlot is ballot in-charge this time too and camped in Gujarat for 3 days final week (August 18-20). He has had talks with social gathering officers in Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Ahmedabad, however the social gathering is holding again on a ballot manifesto. An initiative titled ‘Bolo Sarkar’ has been launched, below which Congress employees are anticipated to carry some 2,000 conferences in rural areas to get individuals’s ideas. After a assessment by the excessive command, lots of the higher ideas may make it to the manifesto, say social gathering sources.
A Gujarat Congress chief says the main target will probably be on the BJP authorities’s “failures” on the training and well being fronts. Gehlot needs partymen to spotlight the Rajasthan authorities’s plan to introduce a ‘right to health’ invoice versus Gujarat’s shoddy dealing with of the post-Covid state of affairs. Replicating the ‘Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme’ in Gujarat—the scheme gives well being cowl to each household in Rajasthan—can even be a sizzling subject throughout the marketing campaign. “It was very painful to see the condition of Gujarat during the pandemic. Despite being in power for 27 years, the government did nothing to save precious lives,” Gehlot instructed reporters.
As ballot in-charge, Gehlot had bought 77 seats for the Congress in 2017, its greatest efficiency since 1995. The social gathering had even give you a catchy ballot slogan then, ‘Vikas gando thayo chhe (Development has gone kaput)’, enjoying on Modi’s favorite ‘vikas’ mantra, however it wasn’t sufficient to derail the saffron social gathering. The Congress’s slide prior to now two years could also be an excessive amount of for even Gehlot to salvage. Many of the social gathering’s large leaders have switched camps and joined the BJP. But Gehlot continues to be up for a rumble; speaking to reporters in Ahmedabad on August 20, he known as PM Modi an “ace actor”.
But greater than the BJP, the Congress’s fear is that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would possibly steal their constituency. AAP chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is specializing in Saurashtra and the south Gujarat area this time round. He has promised to copy his “Delhi model” to offer high quality authorities college training in Gujarat. At a city corridor in Bhuj on August 16, Kejriwal rolled out a plan for this, which incorporates opening new authorities colleges, an audit of personal colleges, freezing the charge construction and making the roles of contract lecturers everlasting.
Kejriwal can also be trumpeting his signature freebies-with-riders, together with 300 free models of electrical energy a month, month-to-month unemployment dole of Rs 3,000 to the youth and Rs 1,000 to ladies above 18. AAP has additionally bought some 1,100 locals on the rolls to unfold the social gathering’s message on social media platforms. The Delhi CM has even requested probationary lecturers and policemen to marketing campaign covertly for AAP. “The policemen are demanding higher grade pay. Work for us, help bring an AAP government and we’ll get you higher pay,” he stated.
Kejriwal’s phrases are getting lots of traction which, not surprisingly, has the Congress in some hassle. Former Union minister Tushar Chaudhary calls APP the “BJP’s B-team” whereas ex-state Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia has been telling anybody who will hear that his social gathering had promised free electrical energy to farmers means again in May. AAP state president Gopal Italia retorts that the Congress ought to first implement its guarantees within the states the place it guidelines, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The BJP, for its half, is having fun with the commotion. As a senior state chief says, “If AAP cuts into the Congress votes, it will better our margins.”
