It was a cosy dinner in a sultry summer evening at the chief minister's bungalow in Gandhinagar when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is believed to have asked his party men in Gujarat to ensure a 150 seat win in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections.
It would be breaking Congress' record of 149 seats under the leadership of Madhav Sinh Solanki in 1985.
After the spectacular win in the country's largest state Uttar Pradesh, which is aptly deemed as the political laboratory of sorts, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now turned its attention to its flagship state Gujarat. A comfortable win in Gujarat is critical for reaffirming the Modi wave that has swept the recent Assembly elections, barring Punjab.
Modi is believed to have asked his party MLAs to rise up to the challenge and break the Congress record. It is indeed a matter of pride for the Modi-Shah team, scoring in homeground.
Speculations are rife in Gandhinagar and in Gujarat media circles that the BJP might consider pre-poning the elections here (ahead of a December schedule), to ride on the UP wave. Sources close to the leadership, however, claimed otherwise.
Both Modi and Amit Shah are known to have taken feedback from party leaders here on having early elections in Gujarat. Both have not yet clearly spoken their mind to state leaders.
Political observers here say that apart from the strong anti-incumbency there is practically nothing that may go against the BJP in the 2017 Assembly elections. "Hardik (Patel), Alpesh (Thakor), Jignesh (Mevani) are the three faces of unrest and opposition in Gujarat. Alpesh has already tilted towards the BJP, Jignesh does not seem to have a mass appeal while Hardik is increasingly being seen as fickle and lacking a concrete plan," said a senior observer.
Sociologist and noted political analyst Vidyut Joshi claimed BJP is sure to win; but the seats tally might come down. He predicts a 110-seats victory for the party out of the 182 seats Assembly. In 2012, BJP had won in 119 seats, Congress had 57 (final tally after by-elections).
"The anti-incumbency here is strong, farmers, anganwadi workers, kisaan sanghs are all disillusioned to a certain extent. Plus there is a serious compatibility issue between the CM and the deputy CM. The general assumption is Modi might send a senior leader Purushottam Rupala (who is now Minister of State for Agriculture in Delhi) to take charge of Gujarat," Joshi says.
He is perhaps right on the anti-incumbency front. A dip-stick survey across districts of Gujarat showed that farmers at large were not satisfied with the measures taken by the BJP government.
Ramesh Bhoraniya, a cotton and groundnut farmer from outskirts of Rajkot says, "The government has not sided with us on the minimum support price (MSP) front. They did not increase procurement when needed."
Another farmer in the Saurashtra belt, a traditional BJP strong-hold (now shaken with the Patidar agitation) says th-Your data has been truncated.