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VIJAY RUPANI, Gujarat chief minister

The BJP failed to defeat senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel in the high-octane Rajya Sabha poll in Gujarat, but the ruling party believes it has gained a lot by exposing chinks in the Congress’ armour. In an interview with DK Singh, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani says Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be “the face” of the November assembly elections and the BJP will win 150 plus seats. Excerpts:

What’s your takeaway from the recent Rajya Sabha polls, especially in the context of the November assembly elections?

We will get 150 plus seats (in the 182-member assembly). We have won all the elections that have taken place in the past one-and-a-half years. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, we won all 26 seats in Gujarat. In UP, we led on 310 Vidhan Sabha seats in 2014; we finally won 325. This means that Modi magic, people’s faith in Modi, continues. In Gujarat, we led on 160 seats (in 2014); so I am saying 150. When Modiji was CM, we got 121 seats; now that he is PM, we will get more. There is a vertical split in the Congress. 14 MLAs quit (voted against) the Congress. Shankarsinh’s (Vaghela) exit is a big blow to the Congress. Amul Dairy chairman Ramsinh is a six-term MLA. Raghavji Patel, a big name in Saurashtra, is an influential Patidar leader. The BJP had a lot to gain in this election.