Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s phrase maut ke saudagar (merchant of death) — to describe Narendra Modi in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002 — paved way for his return as Chief Minister, and, later, as a formidable national leader. Rahul Gandhi may have learnt from his mother’s mistake: this week, he focused more on symbolism, seasoned with soft attacks on the BJP and Modi, as he addressed small meetings and met the people along the way.

On the other hand, the BJP has become accustomed to holding large meetings, even though its leaders keep harping on people-to-people contacts.

During his three-day ‘roadshow’ during Navratri in the politically-sensitive Saurashtra region, Rahul visited five temples, climbed 650 steps to a famous deity’s abode atop a hillock at Chotila near Rajkot — as other Congress leaders huffed and puffed — and tried to peddle soft-Hindutva, rather than harping on his party’s traditional ‘minorityism’.

In fact, the Congress Vice-President launched his election campaign by visiting the Dwarkadheesh Temple in Jamnagar. Patidar leader Hardik Patel extended him support, and Gandhi went to the Patidar deity shrine at Khodaldham as well.

Déjà vu? In 1977, Indira Gandhi’s famous elephant ride at Belchhi in Bihar, following the killing of 11 people from ‘lower castes’, had begun to unravel the Janata Party government of Morarji Desai. Exactly 40 years later, taking a leaf out of his grandmother’s book, Rahul rode a bullock cart in a region where some Dalits were thrashed by upper castes in 2016.

BJP alarmed Despite several setbacks in quick succession since Modi left the State to become Prime Minister, the BJP has not had to weather much turbulence in the State. They were helped by the fact that both the PM and BJP chief Amit Shah hailed from the State.

But barely a couple of months before the crucial Assembly polls, the ruling party finds itself out of comfort zone, with its pet slogan of ‘development’ becoming the millstone around its neck. Heavy rains in recent times exposed roads, many of which became unmotorable, in a State that prided itself on the ‘Gujarat model’.

The phrase Vikas gando thayo chhe (development has gone crazy!), crafted by some unknown genius and made viral on social media, has become a synonym for the BJP’s failures.

This was deadlier than the previous setbacks — the agitation by Patidars demanding reservation, the Dalit anger borne out of atrocities by upper castes in Una, demonetisation, GST, poor political leadership and the aftermath of the recent floods.

So much was the damage from the development debate that the BJP leadership had to rush in its stalwarts from New Delhi to contain the damage. In quick succession, Union Ministers Arun Jaitley, Smriti Irani and others tried to arrest further damage, especially when Rahul Gandhi’s visits began.

Gandhi is scheduled to undertake more three-day road-shows in North, Central and South Gujarat in succession, leading up to the Assembly elections, and attempt to retain the Congress morale boosted after re-election of Ahmed Patel to the Rajya Sabha last month.

Combating Congress It is with this fresh Congress challenge in the face that the BJP seems to be working on several strategies to split the anti-incumbency vote that might go the Congress way. Former Congress leaders Sharad Pawar and Shankarsinh Vaghela’s splinter outfits are expected to chip away at the Congress’ votes in varying degrees.

The Alphesh Thakore-led OBC-SC-ST morcha is seen as an answer to the possible losses caused by the Patidars. The opposition vote may also split due to the presence of the Sharad Yadav-led Janata Dal faction, the Aam Admi Party (AAP), the BSP in the fray.

It’s not over yet But, in politics, the early bird does not necessarily get the worm and might just get exhausted sooner! So, once the Opposition parties exhaust their efforts, the BJP is expected to stun Gujarat with a blitzkrieg. Both Modi and Shah are known to unveil their cards at the last moment. The BJP is planning to organise some two dozen events of the duo after Diwali and believes that its two grandmasters would enter the fray when other smaller players have exhausted their moves!

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