Amit Shah leads the prestige battle in his Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat

All these five constituencies where Shah spent considerable time fall under his Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat. Of its total seven seats, the BJP has sitting MLAs in five and the Congress in two. Having won the Gandhinagar seat for the first time in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it is a battle of prestige for Shah to win all the seven Assembly segments in it.

Considered the brain behind the BJP’s poll strategies, particularly the figuring out of intricate sub-caste arithmetic in candidate selection, Shah cannot not meet with total success in own seat. He is also the face and voice of the party for the Gujarat elections, holding media interactions and laying down winnability as the criteria for ticket selection.

It was after Shah landed in Gujarat on November 13 that the BJP took up finalisation of candidates for some of the most contested Assembly constituencies in the state, wrapping this up by Wednesday – a day to go for nomination deadline for the second phase to end. Sources said the Union minister was closely involved in damage control as a number of leaders were openly angry over allotment of tickets, with at least three threatening to contest as Independents.

Between 1989 when Shankersinh Vaghela won from the seat, and 2019, when Shah became the MP, the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency had been represented by MPs not based in Gujarat. For example, former deputy prime minister L K Advani, who was a five-term Gandhinagar MP, winning it consecutively from 1991 till 2014, except 1996, when late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee won.

An MLA from Sarkhej constituent of the Gandhinagar seat, Shah was the election manager for Advani each time he contested, ensuring a bigger victory margin every successive election.

During his recent trip, Shah drove with candidate Kanubhai Patel as he went to file his nomination in the Sanand Assembly constituency, and made a halt to meet party workers at a small gathering, in a boost to the candidate. Similarly, he did a nearly 3-km roadshow with CM Bhupendra Patel in his Ghatlodia constituency on the day he filed his nomination papers.

The Union minister visited the offices of the BJP candidates from Vejalpur, Naranpura and Sabarmati – Amit Thaker, Jitu Bhagat and Harshad Patel, respectively – who have replaced sitting MLAs.

A party source said there was nothing surprising in this. “This is Shah’s style during elections. He was deeply involved during the 2017 Assembly polls as well. As far as visiting the constituencies goes, he is almost religious in taking care of them.”

Of the seven Assembly segments in Gandhinagar — Vejalpur, Naranpura, Ghatlodia, Sabarmati, Kalol, Sanand and Gandhinagar North – only Kalol and Gandhinagar North have not had a visit from Shah recently. “He will certainly cover them in his next visit,” said the source.