Click to play videoNew Delhi: The smoke of violence keeps billowing out every time an election approaches in Gujarat. But this winter, the story seems a bit different.
BJP's video campaign for the Assembly polls, titled Jeetega Gujarat, projects Narendra Modi as a virtual one-man show. It's an answer to Congress' Shah Rukh Khan-inspired 'Chak De Gujarat' campaign — which is a collection of songs, posters and badges.
At the heart of both the campaigns, the parties have made an attempt to appeal to the Gujarati pride.
On his part, Modi is indeed talking of other things. "Terrorists must not try to train their guns on Gujarat. Every Gujarati will reply back and keep fighting against terrorism," he says in one election speech. The sub-text may be Gujarat 2002, but there is no direct reference to the tragedy that shook the state five years back.
BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad says development is his party's message to the people of Gujarat this time around.
"After all in every election, there is a message for the people. The development of Gujarat, which people have experienced under the Chief Ministership of Narendra Modi, is basically a kind of embodiment of that — new hope, new development and a new assurance."
Congress looks at it the other way. "In Chak De Gujarat, we must buck up. There is no magic medicine," explains party leader Bharatsinh Solanki.
If the Congress is wielding the hockey stick and trying to create a 'Chak De' wave, the BJP believes the Gujarati pride — which it equals with Narendra Modi — is going to be their masterstroke in the forthcoming polls.
"Gujarat is the only state in India where 24 lakh villages have electricity," Modi reminds the people in one of his rallies.
It's these electrifying promises that BJP believes will establish Modi as the new symbol of development. But in the 'pro-Gujarat' video wave, the parties seem to have left out the cracks between communities and income groups in Gujarati society.
(With Meghdoot Sharon in Ahmedabad)
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