How was the last day of campaign in Gujarat (with pictures)

Ahmedabad, 28 April, 2014

So how was the last day of campaign in Gujarat?

–Narendra Modi addressed six rallies. He made emotional appeal, but also pointed out that it was practical to vote for BJP. He said every vote to lotus will go to him. He asked people to elect PM over MP. He told people that he is one of them. He made fun of Rahul’s lies and goof ups. The highest temperature in Gujarat was 46.6 in north Gujarat’s Idar. Modi completed six rallies in around six hours.

–On Congress side, union minister Kapil Sibal addressed a press conference at Gujarat Congress headquarters in Ahmedabad. Sibal mostly spoke on the issue of encounter of Ishrat and Javed. Then he showed photograph of one Hawala case accused from Surat Afroz Fatta with Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders. The photographs were taken from Narendra Modi’s official website and Gujarat government websites. The photographs with Modi was clicked in public function. The photographs make a point that Fatta was BJP supporter. But what does that prove? Soon after Sibal’s press conference Surat BJP MLA Harsh Sanghvi posted a photograph showing Fatta with Congress MP Mohammad Azharuddin. UP BJP incharge Amit Shah retweeted Shah’s tweet containing this photograh. Later when news media noticed and highlighted that Amit Shah retweeted photo war, Shah removed retweet. Why Sibal fails to make any impact over Modi’s loyal voters and even fence sitters? Well, that’s because Sibal and entire UPA-3 are perceived as a failed government. They don’t have any credibility.

–As soon as BJP came to know about Sibal’s press conference in Ahmedabad. they organized party spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi’s press conference to clear the air. While Sibal’s press conference was held around noon, Lekhi’s press conference took place at around 4.00 pm. Lekhi replied the questions on Sibal’s media interaction. Lekhi also spoke about other issues. In tomorrow’s newspapers if Sibal will be given three column space, Meenakshi Lekhi will also get same space. Things are balanced at the end of the day. Lehi is a woman, she has not been a corrupt minister, she has not baggage to carry. Her credibility is 100% more than Sibal. It makes difference.

–Congress party relied on B and C grade actresses of yesteryear on the last day of campaign. Neha Dhupia(do you remember her last movie?), Nagma( do you remember her last movie?) and Raj Babbar were in Gujarat towns to do road show in favor of Congress. BJP relied on Gujarati film star/politician Mahesh-Naresh-Hitu Kanodia at some places, but the main face of campaign on last day was of course Narendra Modi. Most of the candidates relied on scooter, bicycle rallies on last day of campaign. On last day of campaign in Gujarat, BJP organized a road show in Vadodara which was participated by 7,000 scooters/bikes, 100 four wheelers, 25,000 party workers. The route of road show was 28 km long. It was participated by local MP Shukla, MLAs Saurabh Patel, Sukhadia, Yogesh Patel, Rajendra Trivedi, city BJP president Dangar, VUDA chairman among others(photo on this page).

–In media, there were attacks on Narendra Modi from all directions. In Kashmir, Abdullahs issued statements against Narendra Modi, from Bengal, Mamata’s party issued repeated statements and remarks against Modi, Rahul slammed Modi in Punjab. Also in media was Gautam Adani defending himself against Congress allegations. Adani in his interview in Hindi with CNN-IBN said his group got land in Congress ruled Rajasthan and Maharashtra too at almost same rates as Gujarat. Adani said he is attacked due to election season, and as soon as elections are over, attacks too are going to stop. Adani struggled to defend himself properly in English with NDTV just due to language problem. Adani clearly said that his company’s aviation unit charges money from BJP and Gujarat govt for using Adani’s aircraft. Modi gave two interviews on Monday. One to Etv and other to Zee news. Modi released part of Etv interview on Youtube and shared it with media. Modi was replying Abdullahs of Kashmir in this video.