Poll battle heats up with rally overdrive in Gujarat
Campaigning for the assembly elections in Gujarat kicked into high gear on Monday with top leaders descending on the battleground regions of Saurashtra and south Gujarat that go to the polls in the first phase on December 1.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at three rallies in Surendranagar, Navsari and Jambusar as part of his campaign blitz in the final weeks of the election campaign. Union home minister Amit Shah addressed rallies in Saurashtra’s coastal region of Dwarka and Junagadh. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed his first public meetings in the western state in Rajkot and Surat, taking a break from his ongoing mass contact programme, Bharat Jodo Yatra. And, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal held a rally in Amreli, promising one million jobs and free electricity if his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) comes to power in its maiden electoral foray in the state.
Modi attacked the Congress. “Your (Congress) padyatra is to grab power and nothing else,” he said in Surendranagar. Shah said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ensured peace in the state. Gandhi accused the state government of trying to hide the real culprits behind the death of 141 people in a bridge collapse last month in Morbi town. Kejriwal asked voters to give the AAP a chance and said both major parties had failed the people.
Eighty-nine seats in the Sau