Even before the Election Commission puts out the schedule for General Election to the 17th Lok Sabha, the two main political rivals in Gujarat – the BJP and the Congres – have already rolled up their sleeves and are getting down to the trenches.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi is descending here on February 14 to kick-start his party’s poll campaign from Dharampur in Valsad district of South Gujarat. The BJP President Amit Shah was the first off the block, launching the ruling party’s election campaign from his residence thus Tuesday in Ahmedabad with the launch of a drive, Mera Pariwar, BJP Ka Pariwar (My Family, BJP’s Family) to reach out to the masses by encouraging them to hoist the party flag atop their houses. The BJP chief will also hold party leaders’ and workers’ cluster meetings at different places in Gujarat, including the party headquarters in the Capital.

Simultaneously, the BJP has chalked out a massive outreach programme to retain their thus far impregnable fortress, home to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, by virtually ‘carpet-bombing’ all 26 parliamentary constituencies with poll-related meetings, material and high-voltage campaigning.

In his first campaign visit to the state, Rahul Gandhi will address a Jan Akrosh Rally in the tribal-dominated area, Gujarat Congress spokesman Manish Doshi, told BusinessLine . The Congress is aiming to woo back its traditional tribal voters in a state where the BJP had wrested all 26 LS seats in 2014.

Already in an election mode, the Prime Minister is expected to make at least a dozen visits to Gujarat shortly to make fresh announcements to provide sops, and inaugurate projects worth hundreds of crores of rupees, before the EC’s Code of Conduct comes into effect. The Gujarat BJP is expecting him to address over 20 major events and public meetings by April.

Since January, Modi has already been to the home state thrice and stayed here for four days, participating in a series of events. He is likely to kick off projects at the newly-built Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad on February 28. Again, on March 4 and 5, he will participate in a major outreach programme aiming to woo back the ambivalent Patidars into the BJP-fold and also lay foundation stones for industries worth hundreds of crores in the Saurashtra and other regions as a follow up to the MoUs promising investments, signed during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit last month.

Meanwhile, after resignation and defection of two Congress MLAs to the BJP fold since July 2018, more Congress leaders and legislators are likely to cross-over to the ruling party before the elections.

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