If Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s whirlwind tour of Gujarat is any indication, the State is likely to face Assembly elections any time this year. The term of the Assembly expires in December 2017.

Modi’s visit to his home State and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli on Sunday and Monday was an affair replete with optics, mega roadshows, extravaganzas, gifts and announcements.

Interestingly, the Prime Minister’s speeches chose to steer clear of national and international issues as he participated in half-a-dozen events. His focus was on State-level issues as Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, his deputy Nitin Patel and former CM Anandiben Patel accompanied him.

The PM, who arrived at Surat from Odisha on Sunday evening, led an 11-km-long mega roadshow — the ruling BJP’s show of strength — in which some 15,000 motorcyclists, including women, participated. Thousands lined up on the road from airport to Circuit House, in what was, perhaps, the biggest and most impressive roadshow ever in Gujarat’s richest city.

Modi’s targeted vote base was amply clear during the two-day visit — his ninth since September 2016 — as he sought to woo women, farmers, diamond artisans, youth, milk cooperatives and tribals.

For farmers, he extended by a week the deadline for procurement of pulses (April 15) by Central agencies at MSP rates, in the wake of a bumper crop and a delayed crop cycle this year. The extension would help farmers sell their produce properly, he told a huge gathering of farmers and milk cooperatives at Bajipura, near Surat, where he inaugurated six projects of of Amul Dairy totalling ₹400 crore. He also exhorted farmers to produce solar energy, honey and bio-gas.

At Botad, in the Saurashtra region, the PM praised the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh which has organised a massive Narmada Yatra asking people to raise forests along the river. He also cautioned against water theft and said the Centre intended to double farmers’ income by 2022. Dedicating to the people an irrigation scheme, he said Botad was where the Jan Sangh — the ruling BJP’s predecessor — had controlled the municipal body in 1967. The Jan Sangh’s chief Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya had also visited Botad following its win.

Inaugurating the Hare Krishna Group’s diamond facility in Surat, Modi asked the people to make the ₹1.25-lakh crore gems and jewelery export sector the biggest in the world. “I will be your representative when I visit Israel in July this year as the first Indian PM to do so,” he said. While Surat is the world’s largest diamond trading and polishing hub, Israel is a key player in producing cut diamonds.

He also inaugurated the world-class ₹500-crore trust-run Kiran Hospital, asking the doctors to encourage affordable generic drugs for the poor. “The NDA government has announced the National Healthcare Policy, 15 years after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government’s policy,” Modi said, adding that the government has listed nearly 700 affordable generics for the poor. Women delivering girl babies at the hospital will get free medical treatment and their second girl baby will be paid ₹1 lakh when she turns 21.

At Silvassa, the Capital of the UT-DNH, Modi gifted equipment to the differently-abled, land ownership rights to 2,325 tribals, and announced that over 7,000 poor would get a house under the Centre’s objective of housing-for-all by 2022, when India celebrates 75 years of Independence. He also gifted two-burner stoves, pressure cookers and LPG gas connection to 8,000 women under the Centre’s Ujjavala Yojana.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW