Low blows and wild rhetoric: BJP's Gujarat campaign was nothing short of a slugfest

Gujarat Elections 2017: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses an election campaign rally for state assembly election in Jamnagar. (PTI)

Over the past several weeks, Gujarat has been a cesspool of cheesy political campaigns and increasingly heated exchanges between parties. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been in power in the state for more than two decades, is finding its task cut out with both Patidar leader Hardik Patel and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi seemingly posing the toughest challenge the saffron party has seen since it first took power in 1995.

True to the age-old practice of bringing out the big guns in the face of a challenge, BJP took no chances with their campaign for the Gujarat assembly elections. Needless to say, it was almost entirely dominated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, with other leaders within the party including chief minister Vijay Rupani making only minor appearances here and there. After all, an election on the Prime Minister’s home turf is bound to be a matter of prestige and will certainly lay the groundwork for the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

“We will fight the elections on the popularity of Modi and strategy of party president Amit Shah (also from Gujarat),” a senior state BJP leader had told PTI in April. “PM Modi is our national face. He will be the face on whom the party will be banking for the 2017 Gujarat elections,” he said. The leader added that the party will likely target a seat count of 150 out of 182 going into the election.

There is little doubt that Modi, who has won assembly elections in Gujarat on three occasions before moving to the Centre, has been one of the most popular leaders from Gujarat over the years. So much so that despite his repeated assurances that nothing would change when he became prime minister, the fact remains that Gujarat has had two chief ministers — Anandiben Patel and Vijay Rupani — since then and neither of them have come even remotely close to the levels of popularity Modi enjoyed during his time.

Unofficially kick-starting the campaign by paying a visit to the iconic Somnath Temple in March, Modi went on to visit his home state at least 10 times between July and November. During these visits, the Prime Minister attended at least three rallies a day, concentrating on key districts. The narrative was always development, with more than a few jibes at Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party complementing the overall effort.

Modi’s visits to his home state also played a significant role in reminding the people of Gujarat of the development seen in the state since Modi first became CM in 2002. On one of his visits, he inaugurated the controversial Sardar Sarovar dam, while another visit was used to lay the foundation of the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

Another major development project that saw the light of day on one of these visits was the ro-ro (roll on, roll off) ferry service between Ghogha and Dahej in Gujarat. This was launched with an aim to please the Patels in the area who have relatives working in the diamond and textile industries of Surat. Travellers from the area earlier had to take a nine-hour bus ride, which went around the sea, to get to South Gujarat and the ferry made this journey possible in one hour.

Gujarat’s incumbent chief minister Vijay Rupani is still BJP’s chief ministerial candidate but over the last couple of months, Modi’s visits and extensive campaigning have made sure that no comparison between the two leaders’ political presence will ever be made. Even the Congress, which is making fresh inroads in the state with its extensive campaign on the ground and on social media, is treating Modi as its chief opponent, not Rupani or even the BJP as a whole.

Another highlight of BJP’s campaign this year has been the invisible metre-long stick between them and the Patidars. A report by Scroll pointed out that despite trying to woo the Patidars over on repeated occasions, BJP chief Amit Shah has visibly steered clear of the community over the last couple of months. An event organised three months ago by the party, the first of the ‘Gujarat Gaurav Yatras’, in an effort to bring the Patidars over on its side was met with protests from members of the community.

The Patidar community has been at loggerheads with the BJP ever since the ruling party cracked down on the community’s protests for reservation back in 2014. With young Patidar leader Hardik Patel gaining in prominence with every passing day, it is fairly certain that BJP will not get through this election without a dent in its voter base, if not more.

With Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and OBC leader Alpesh Thakor also making a name for themselves, the BJP’s focus turned to the tribal voter base in Gujarat. Tribals account for 15 percent of the state’s population and will play a major role in determining the outcome for 35 of the 182 seats in the state assembly.

On its part, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which acts as the ideological head of the party, has been doing its bit in canvassing for the BJP among the Patidars, Dalits, and even the disgruntled textile traders from Surat who were up in arms against the implementation of GST. The issues on the ground include access to clean drinking water and public healthcare. Lack of access to clean water in the Gajadi village of Morbi district resulted in its residents boycotting the elections.

By October, it was clear that the BJP had to step up its efforts if it wanted to both win and maintain the standing it currently has in the state. This resulted in the party bringing out other big names like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to campaign for it in Gujarat.

The campaign heated up even more when senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar called the Prime Minister a ‘neech aadmi’ days before the first phase of the polls. This resulted in Aiyar getting a lot of flak from BJP leaders, within his own party, and from Modi himself. "Yes, they called me 'neech' but our value systems are strong. We have nothing to say to such elements. Our answer will come through the ballot box. We have seen enough insults from them. They insulted me when I was CM. They called me 'Maut Ka Saudagar' and wanted to jail me," Modi said in his response to the comment.

Congress nipped the issue in the bud by suspending Aiyar from the party but that did not stop BJP from terming it an orchestrated stunt. However, it would be wrong to say that Congress was the only party courting controversy with its comments, considering Modi himself alleged Pakistani meddling in the elections. He claimed that the former director general of the Pakistan Army, Sardar Arshad Rafiq, was giving tacit support to senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel for the chief minister’s post.

The Prime Minister went on to say that a meeting was held at Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house and was attended by Pakistan’s former foreign minister, Pakistan High Commissioner, India’s former vice president and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Modi's predecessor said he was 'deeply pained' by these allegations.

Another major highlight of BJP’s campaign this year was the absence of a manifesto right up until a day before the first phase of voting began. BJP, at least in the recent past, has been quick to provide manifestos in each of its election campaigns in the country but experts suspected that with most campaign promises from the past having been fulfilled, it would have been difficult for the party to come out with a new narrative.

When released, the manifesto revealed that BJP has promised to double the income of farmers in the state and ensure that the 10 percent growth clocked by the earlier BJP governments in Gujarat is maintained. The generic nature of the manifesto was in sharp contrast to the 2012 one, which promised to construct 50 lakh houses in the next five years.

All in all, the BJP has had a whirlwind campaign. Be it memorable slogans or forgettable incidents, populist promises or wild rhetoric, this campaign has had something for everyone. Given that the party is still by far the most popular in Gujarat, most people expect it to win the elections comfortably. But whether or not the BJP will be able to hold on to its political standing and whether or not its campaign was enough to ensure that is still left to be seen.