By Japan K Pathak, Gandhinagar: After a grand victory in five-state elections, the focus of BJP will now shift to Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, two States that are going to witness general elections of assembly next. If elections are held as per schedule, which is very much likely, polling will take place in Gujarat for the State assembly in the month of December this year.

The party high command and central leadership was until now busy in five-state elections. However, now the high-profile visits from Centre will only increase. And it starts from the very next day after the results of five-state elections.

Son of soil, Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi, one of the greatest political leaders Gujarat has ever produced in its entire history is going to visit Gujarat on 11-12 March. He was going to visit Gujarat on these dates due to Defense Expo and Indo-Africa summit events. However both events are postponed. Narendrabhai has kept his visit unchanged.

Narendrabhai will be accorded grand reception on about 10-km route from Sardar Patel airport to State party headquarters Shri Kamalam in Gandhinagar. Party workers will gather on both sides of the road and cultural programmes will be performed at various stages that are set up on the route. Narendrabhai will have lunch at Kamalam and hold meeting with party leaders. This will be in fact the start of Gujarat election preparations.

The Prime Minister will also hold a public meeting of over a lakh elected representatives of Gujarat who are part of BJP family, right from the elected members of village panchayats to members of parliament. This gathering is scheduled to take place at GMDC ground. On the next day, the Prime Minister will kick off annual sports extravaganza ‘Khel Mahakumbh’ by State government at Sardar Patel stadium in Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad. The upside capacity of the stadium is 50,000. The focus in this event will be the youths. The Prime Minister is also scheduled to address the convocation of Rashtriya Raksha University in Gandhinagar. Narendrabhai had conceived and established this university whe he was Chief Minister. He had initiated Khel Mahakumbh also when he was Chief Minister in Gujarat. Narendrabhai had as a Chief Minister also initiated Garib Kalyan Melas in which poor beneficiaries of various schemes of the State government would be handed over the benefits directly in a public function. The State government organized the latest season of Garib Kalyan Mela just last month.

Union Cooperative minister Amit Shah is going to address a gathering of over a lakh milk producers and farmers in South Gujarat later this week. The gathering has been organize by SUMUL dairy. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is meanwhile holding its annual All India Pratinidhi Sabha meet at Pirana, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city. Over 1200 RSS representatives from entire India are going to participate in this three-day event, which is considered the highest decision-making body of RSS. The programme is unrelated to BJP or the election year. Union Fisheries minister Parshottam Rupala has started ‘Sagar Parikrama’ tour by road and by sea recently , covering the coastal areas of Gujarat. He is holding number of meetings and interactions with fishermen, fishing community leaders and others in the course of this yatra. The women’s wing of Gujarat BJP organized a meet of Sadhvi jis (women saints) at Dhordo tent city in Rann of Kutch on International Women’s Day. Narendrabhai addressed this meet via video conference.

Some more poll-related movements – earlier in January this year, Gujarat BJP Yuva Morcha (BJYM) launched its Vistarak programme, a very strategic initiative with multiple purposes. One of the purposes was to reach out to the exact localities where BJP’s performance has been poor in past elections. Another purpose was to enroll new cadres to the party in specific targeted number. One more purpose was to create ‘one booth ten youth’ team to complement the page committee teams. Thus on the booths, BJP would have two teams, one from the party and the other from party’s Yuva Morcha.

Due to covid-19 pandemic, BJP had to drop its certain plans, such as celebration of Swami Vivekanand’s birth anniversary on January 12, State party chief CR Patil’s planned visits to every district and more. Even on the Government side, some blitzkrieg events such as Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Defense Expo had to be postponed or dropped due to Covid pandemic and also later due to Russia-Ukraine war. Though both events were for participants only, there were some events of public participation planned such as drone-show and exhibitions.

Nevertheless, the party has now returned to its plans. There shall be many more lakh-plus events through the State government for now. There shall be region wise events (Saurashtra, Kutch, North Gujarat, Central Gujarat, South Gujarat, Tribal Belt), there shall be occasion-wise events, there shall be inauguration events of big-ticket development projects that are ready, there shall be organization-wise events (cooperative dairies, party’s various wings), there can be possibly even caste and community wise events. Once the model code of conduct is effective, which is likely in the month of September-October, the mobilization through State government will need to be stopped and mass mobilization through party’s machinery will start. At least one tour by Prime Minister every month to his home-state Gujarat is expected from now to the month of December. Amit Shah’s frequency of visit will also only rise.

The goal, party has set is higher this year. Publicly the goal is BJP victory on all 182 assembly seats of Gujarat. Privately it could be anywhere between 128 to 151. It’s worth noting that 127-seat win was the highest mark, BJP could touch in Gujarat so far. It was achieved in year 2002 general elections. If a party crosses this mark, it would be the highest number win achieved so far in Gujarat in any election. Previously then Congress leader and Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki had achieved 150-seat win when the elections were held soon after Indira Gandhi’s murder.

BJP had a poor show in previous general elections in Gujarat in 2017 with just a 99-seat win. The entire election campaign, strategy and preparations were presided by Amitbhai Shah then. However for last around two years, Narendrabhai has taken over the State unit affairs by appointing his man CR Patil as president and executing a complete reboot in the State government and party organization. Heat is on.