Modi's Late Charge

The prime minister is pulling out all the stops to save the BJP in what has become a tight situation in Gujarat. But will it be enough, could there be an upset?

- Uday Mahurkar

 As news about the BJP’s triumph in Uttar Pradesh’s civic elections started trickling in on Dec ember 1, some of the dim faces at the BJP media centre on Ahmedabad’s busy S-G highway started brightening. The average BJP worker in Gujarat has not had too much to cheer about of late, fighting anti-incumbency and charges of arrogance levelled by the opposition Congress and the troika of Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani.

A day later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too looked more upbeat. Of course, south Gujarat is home base, one of the party’s strongest regions while it is precariously placed in Saurashtra, north and central Gujarat except in some urban pockets. Cries of ‘Modi, Modi’ rend the air as he recites familiar themes—the Congress playing divisive politics, development figures under BJP rule, the bullet train brouhaha, local issues of the Bharuch district. There is even an attempt to placate the Muslims: “Two districts that have seen the maximum development are Kutch and Bharuch which have the highest Muslim populations in Gujarat,” he says. Clearly, Modi looks in full control of his election spiel as the last round of the Gujarat poll campaign heats up.

Significantly, he never even indirectly attacks Hardik, the leader of the pro-Patel reservation party PAAS who continues to make the BJP ranks nervous with the adulation he is getting eve ry where—from Saurashtra to north and central Gujarat—among the Patels. That hatchet job is left to state leaders like deputy chief minister Nitin Patel who warns “against falling into the Congress trap... they are using Hardik; reservation over 49 per cent is impossible under the Constitution”.