BATTLE FOR THE BASTION

The poll campaign heats up in Gujarat, PM Modi's home turf. Can the ruling BJP stave off the challenge from the Congress and AAP?

- Kiran D. Tare

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Bhuj on August 28 to inaugurate the Narmada canal that will bring water to parched Kutch from south Gujarat. The state is up for assembly polls in December P and at a rally later, surprisingly, he brought up the old bogey of conspiracies to defame Gujarat after the 2002 riots when he was chief minister (2001-14). This was unusual for the PM, a deviation from the script of the past couple of years where he had stopped talking about the past and was focused more on future opportunities for the state.

The PM's packed two-day tour also included a roadshow in Bhuj (his fourth in the state since March), the inauguration of the Atal Bridge for pedestrians on the Sabarmati river and joining a Khadi Utsav event where he spun a charkha with 7,500 women artisans from across Gujarat. All this hectic activity, of course, came against the backdrop of two important devel­opments in the state. Barely 10 days before, on August 19, there had been a major overhaul of the state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Bhupendrab­ hai Patel. Then there was the contro­ versial Independence Day ‘gesture’ from the state government, releasing 11 people convicted of involvement in the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of 14 members of her family in the 2002 communal attacks. A BJP source says Modi was in a huddle with state leaders, taking stock of the fallout of the two developments.