BJP to launch Gujarat Gaurav Yatra on Oct 12 to gear up poll campaign

On the reasons for organising the yatra, the office-bearer said, “It is basically an exercise of reaching out to the people of all 182 constituencies in the state. It is to activate party workers and voters in every constituency. It will mark the completion of the first phase of the party’s campaigning for the polls. Every known leader of the party in the country will join the yatra at some point or the other.”

A party source said, “While the thrust area of the yatra will be to reach out to the people of every constituency, special focus will be on to reach out to tribal voters across the state. Of the total 27 seats reserved for the tribal communities in Gujarat, the party will do its maximum to win as many seats as it can by expanding its base among tribals.”

Out of the five yatra routes, one will exclusively cover the tribal belt from Unai in Navsari district of South Gujarat to Ambaji in Banaskantha district of North Gujarat, the source said. “The other route will cover the distance between Unai to Fagvel in Kheda district of Central Gujarat; half of this route will cover tribal areas.” Explaining the special focus on tribal vote bank during the yatra, a party insider said, “Our party wants to break the Congress’s record of winning 149 seats in the Gujarat assembly. For that, expanding its reach among tribals is important.”

Drawing a parallel with a similar Gujarat Gaurav Yatra held in 2002 by the then state Chief Minister and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a senior party leader said, “Earlier, in 2002, then CM Modi had carried out similar state-wide Gujarat Gaurav Yatra that was launched from Fagvel in Kheda. It was held for 11 weeks every Friday, Saturday and Sunday covering the entire state in about 33 days.”