The BJP on Sunday launched a coordinated election campaign for the critical Gujarat Assembly elections with simultaneous strikes by a galaxy of senior leaders, Chief Ministers and Union Cabinet members at the Congress, making it seem like it peaked too early.

The ruling party’s star campaigner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been reserved for the second day when he starts his election rallies from Kutch.

The BJP campaign was focussed, starting with a massive mass contact programme attended by an array of party leaders, who settled with party workers and voters before giant screens to hear the PM’s scheduled radio message Mann Ki Baat as clips from the government’s achievements and related subjects rolled on screens.

The PM, however, refrained from making a political comment in his 40-minute AIR address. He greeted Muslims on Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi (birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad), paid glowing tributes to BR Ambedkar on the Constitution Day (November 26) and came up with a new slogan #PositiveIndia as the year is coming to an end and how India should begin the new year with positive thoughts.

Tea politics

People across 50,128 polling booths in 182 Assembly constituencies heard Modi’s 38th radio address, as dozens of Union Ministers and senior BJP leaders fanned out across the poll-bound State to join them over cups of tea.

Nearly 35 senior leaders from the Central and State leadership, including candidates, participated in the mass contact programme in a booth-level networking exercise, as a prelude to Modi’s whirlwind tour on Monday and Wednesday. His visits to Gujarat after November 27 have been kept under wraps. In a two-phase poll, Gujarat will vote on December 9 and 14.

State Chief Minister Vijay Rupani joined the voters in the Panchmahal district in Central Gujarat, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley went to Surat and former Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel to Valsad. BJP President Amit Shah joined voters at Muslim-dominated Dariyapur in Ahmedabad.

Union Ministers Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal, Uma Bharati and Dharmendra Pradhan and senior party leaders Ram Lal, V Sathish and Bhupendra Yadav were among those who visited different polling booths across Gujarat. They all shared tea with voters while listening to Modi’s message.

That the BJP and Modi may have given the long rope to the Congress became apparent when the PM’s schedule for the final push remained unexpectedly unclear for a couple of weeks. Unlike in the past, when Modi’s events were advertised in advance, the dates for his blitzkrieg campaign were postponed at least twice in November, at a time when he is seen as ‘battling’ the Grand Old Party on his home ground in a crucial make-and-mar election. Shah, however, has held the fort.

Finally, Modi is all set for the big push on Monday, when he will address four public meetings, starting at Bhuj in Kutch. Again, he will address another four meetings on Wednesday. He has not spoken a word so far on various issues raised by Rahul Gandhi and the Congress.

Gujarat is waiting to hear from him.

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