Gujarat Confidential: PM Modi’s Vadodara visit, ‘12,000 Rajiv Gandhis’ and Congress strategy

‘Lalbaugcha Raja’ in Khadia

Khadia, a BJP bastion that fell to the Congress in the last municipal election, will be the centre for launching a Ganesh festival modeled after Mumbai’s Lalbaugcha Raja (king of Lalbaug), the biggest Ganpati festival in the country’s commercial capital. On the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi on Monday (September 14), the Ashtavinayak Charitable Trust along with other leading religious organisations will install the ‘Khadia na Ganraj’, a state government release said on Saturday. The public celebration will continue for 10 days till the idol’s immersion on September 25. Notably, Lord Ganesh is seen as a “remover of obstacles”.

‘12,000 Rajiv Gandhis’

Responding to a question on whether complaints regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) would be resolved before the next Lok Sabha elections, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in his first public address in Gujarat, said, “Do you know how many Rajiv Gandhis would be there in my electoral database? Not less than 12,000.” Sitting in the front rows in the audience was another Rajiv Gandhi, who is the MD and CEO of Hester Biosciences and President of the Ahmedabad Management Association. He was also the host of the event.

Shankersinh Vaghela’s Push

VIEWING THE 2027 Assembly election as a last ditch effort, former Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela announced an “aggressive campaign” to reactivate the Praja Shakti Party, which he launched, starting October 2. The 86-year-old Vaghela told The Indian Express, “This 2027 Assembly election is my last chance. I don’t think I can be as active later. And I want to do my bit to fight against the BJP”. Vaghela convened a meeting at his residence in Gandhinagar on Sunday which, according to him, was attended by “over 500 people” in support of his outfit. “I did reach out to (Congress president) Mallikarjun Kharge and (former general secretary in charge of Gujarat) Mukul Wasnik around six months back, but there is no response from them yet. It is not for joining the Congress but to ally with it to fight against the BJP. We kept quiet for all this time because every time we would contest, we were blamed for dividing Opposition votes. But now there is hardly any time left,” said Vaghela.

‘Strategic’ Visit

RANDEEP SURJEWALA, the newly appointed AICC general secretary in-charge of Gujarat, will visit the state on September 12. His trip here will coincide with the ongoing Gujarat visit of the BJP’s new Gujarat in-charge, Tarun Chugh. Sources say the Congress has planned a “centrally strategised” plan for the 2027 Assembly elections, given the deep differences within the party’s state unit.

Shunning Plastic

AS PART of environmental conservation efforts, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has started a drive under which citizens can give one kilogram of plastic waste and get an idol of Lord Ganesha from collection centres at nine of its zones. The campaign has received an enthusiastic response from the people, officials said. The SMC’s Health Committee chairman, Ashok Randeriya, said that since the launch of the drive, in the past seven days, over 1,200 kg of plastic waste has been collected and 750 idols of Lord Ganesha, made of mud, were given to the people. “Keeping in mind more demands from the public, we ordered 500 more such idols and these will reach us in the next few days. Through such an initiative, we want to cultivate a habit among citizens not to use plastic material in day-to-day life,” Randeriya added.