Gujarat Election 2017: PM Modi will today first address a rally in Bharuch in south Gujarat (File)
Gandhinagar: Boosted by the BJP's stupendous win in civic polls in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today suggested a repeat in assembly polls in Gujarat where the BJP has ruled for 22 straight years. "...we saw what happened there in the local elections. Congress was wiped out. UP knows the Congress well and so does Gujarat," PM Modi said at a rally in Bharuch in south Gujarat. He is scheduled to address seven public gatherings - pitched by the ruling BJP as "Vikas Rallies" - over the next two days in south Gujarat and Saurashtra, parts of which are dominated by the politically-influential Patidar or Patel community.
Here are the latest developments:
- Later today, PM Modi will address rallies in Surendranagar and Rajkot in Saurashtra. Tomorrow, he is scheduled to address rallies at four places - Dharampur in Valsad, followed by Bhavnagar and in Junagadh and Jamnagar in Saurashtra.
- Eighty-nine districts of south Gujarat and Saurashtra will vote in the first phase of the assembly polls on Saturday, December 9.
- "Bharuch and Kutch are districts with significant Muslim populations. And, if you see the districts which developed rapidly under the BJP tenure in Gujarat, the names of these two districts figure prominently," the Prime Minister said today.
- Bharuch is in south Gujarat where the BJP - worried about a possible dent in the vast Saurashtra region with sections of the Patels, traditional supporters of the BJP, reportedly unhappy with the party - is looking to offset losses by wresting seats from the Congress.
- As the PM addressed crowds in Bharuch, Hardik Patel, the 24-year-old leader who is urging his Patidar community to vote the BJP out of power, launched a massive roadshow, around 70 km away, in Surat, where he launched a massive agitation for reservation in government jobs and colleges two years ago.
- "The BJP will be wiped out," Mr Patel told NDTV. His roadshow will culminate in a rally in the afternoon.
- Surat, the commercial capital of Gujarat and the second biggest city in the PM's home state, is politically high-profile. Since 2002, the BJP has won every single one of the 16 assembly seats in the Surat district. But in the municipal election in December 2015 - a few months after Hardik Patel's mega rallies - the Congress more than doubled its seats (the BJP though won the corporation easily).
- The ruling BJP is reportedly worried not just about Patels being upset over quota but also about resentment over demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
- The city's large non-Gujarati population, mainly textile traders and workers from UP, Bihar and Rajasthan who control the power-loom industry, also seem divided over supporting the ruling party.
- These migrants comprise nearly 26% of Surat's 44.26 lakh population and are as frustrated as the Patels by demonetisation and GST.
