Focus tribal vote, BJP to be on Gaurav Yatra in Gujarat from today

In his rallies in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been claiming that the Congress seems invisible but is working with AAP to attack the BJP.

With the BJP setting itself a target of winning by “a record margin” — more than the highest ever total of 149 seats by the Congress — senior leaders like party president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union ministers, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat BJP president C R Paatil, plus other state leaders, will be part of the yatra. Over 10 days, the BJP plans to cover 144 of the total 182 Assembly constituencies, spanning 5,734 km, and hold 145 public meetings enroute.

The five routes include Bechraji in Mehsana district to Mata to Madhh in Kutch district; Dwarka to Porbandar; Zanzaraka of Ahmedabad district to Somnath of Gir-Somnath district; Unai in Navsari district of South Gujarat to Fagvel in Kheda district of Central Gujarat; and Unai to Ambaji in North Gujarat.

Of these, the Unai to Ambaji route is the longest, covering almost 490 km in the eastern stretch of the state, where the tribal districts are concentrated. A substantial part of another route, from Unai to Fagvel, will also cover parts of the tribal belt.

In the 2017 Assembly polls, the BJP had won only nine of the 27 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST). The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) had won 2, and the rest had gone to the Congress.

The leaders will speak about the “development journey” of Gujarat under the last two decades of BJP rule in the state, including “achievements” like the construction of the world’s biggest statue (Statue of Unity) and the Sabarmati riverfront, provision of 24X7 electricity, as well as other infrastructure development and projects.

Two legs of the yatra will be launched on Wednesday from Bechraji and Dwarka by Nadda, in the presence of Union ministers Bhupender Yadav, Piyush Goyal, Mansukh Mandaviya, Parshottam Rupala, Anurag Thakur, Gajendra Shekhawat, Sarbanand Sonowal, Hardeep Puri, Prahlad Joshi, Dharmendra Pradhan, Sanjiv Balyan, Raosaheb Danve etc.

The state leaders who will be part of the yatra include former CM Vijay Rupani, former deputy CM Nitin Patel, and other former ministers.

A senior party leader said, “The purpose of the yatra is to activate party workers and prepare for campaigning once the elections are notified.” Admitting their focus was the tribal vote, the leader said: “Our party wants to break the Congress record of 149 seats, and winning maximum tribal seats is crucial for that since the Congress is strong among the tribals.”

The Congress has also been trying to strengthen its position among tribals, and recently appointed tribal leader Sukhram Rathva from Chhota Udepur district its Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly replacing Paresh Dhanani, a Patidar.

In a major success for the party, the Gujarat government had to scrap a Par-Tapi-Narmada river linking project that was seeing protests backed by the Congress over acquisition of significant tribal land.

In 2002, after the first Gaurav Yatra, which was carried out when Modi was CM and was facing widespread condemnation over the riots, the BJP had won 127 of the 182 seats in the state.

In 2017, three years after the Modi wave had swept the BJP to power at the Centre, the party had dropped to its lowest performance in years, with 99 seats.