BJP, Cong line up star cast for Gujarat campaign
With just a week left for the Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat — scheduled for May 7 — campaigning, which has remained quite low-key so far, is picking up across constituencies.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won all 26 seats in the previous two Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019 and is aiming to repeat the success story this time as well, has planned public meetings and rallies of its top star campaigners through the week. The Congress, which has seen an early setback in the Surat constituency with the BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal being declared a winner ahead of the election, is trying to match up.
For the BJP, in the last week of campaigning, it’s mostly going to be all the way a Modi-shah show in terms of large rallies and public meetings in Gujarat, their home state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address two public meetings in Deesa (Banaskantha) and Himmatnagar (Sabarkantha) on May 1 (Wednesday) and four in Anand, Surendranagar, Junagadh, and Jamnagar on May 2 (Thursday),
ON THE POLL TRAIL
LIKELY APPEARANCES AHEAD OF MAY 7 LS VOTING IN GUJARAT
according to a BJP functionary.
Home Minister Amit Shah, who’s fighting for re-election from the Gandhinagar seat, may hold at least two more rallies on May 3 and 4 in central and south Gujarat. These two are still being fine-tuned though, it is learnt. On Tuesday, he addressed a public meeting in Naroda, Ahmedabad.
Sources indicated that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath may also chip in this week to add to the BJP firepower in Gujarat campaign, but there’s no confirmation on this so far.
The Congress, too, is lining up its strongest crowd pullers this week,
Ahmedabad May3&4
May 3
before the campaigning ends in the state. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee, will address a rally on May 3 in Lakheni, Banaskantha. Other senior Congress leaders, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge and P Chidambaram, are gearing up to convince people of the state to vote for a change.
Chidambaram, for instance, will address a press conference in Rajkot on May 3. Rajkot, part of the Saurashtra region, witnessed protests against the BJP after controversial remarks on Rajputs by Union minister Parshottam
Rupala. Of the two Union ministers whose Rajya Sabha tenures ended recently, Mansukh Mandaviya will contest from Porbandar and Rupala from Rajkot. Although the plan awaits confirmation, Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP representing Wayanad constituency and seeking re-election from there, may join the Saurashtra campaign rush this week. Other Congress leaders to be part of the Gujarat campaign include Ashok Gehlot, Mukul Wasnik, and Imran Kidwai, it is learnt.
Even as the BJP is banking on Brand Modi for a hat-trick in Gujarat to win all 26 seats, of which
Surat is already in its pocket, social issues around Kshatriyas/rajputs are dominating in some constituencies, especially in the Saurashtra region. But BJP functionaries are putting up a brave front, dismissing any concern at all, while arguing that at the ground level, the Congress has gone missing.
Apart from lining up a star cast for the last leg of campaigning in the state, BJP rallies are focusing on three things — third sweep by the party in the state, projecting Viksit Bharat goals, and placing on record the achievements of the last 10 years, while taking on the Congress wherever possible, a source pointed out.
The Congress, on the other hand, has looked at Rajput protests as an opportunity to make some inroads into the state. But sources in the Congress say that the biggest success story in this election season is that “the Congress is speaking and the BJP is reacting’’. The sources also claim that the Congress is giving a fight to the BJP in Gujarat in more than 10 seats.
After BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal’s Surat win, Gujarat will see 25 Lok Sabha seats go to polls on May 7 with 266 candidates in the fray.