Gujarat pride, PM Modi & his works — focus of Gaurav Yatra as BJP looks to woo rural voters

Five routes to be covered by Gaurav Yatra which will see participation of central & state leaders. Four public meetings lined up daily at designated places to connect with people.

Women walk pass a van of Gaurav Yatra at a pit stop | Praveen Jain | ThePrint

Modasa: A few villagers stopped and stared every now and then as a bus covered with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president J. P. Nadda made its way through rural Gujarat from Modasa near Gandhinagar to Vadnagar in Mehsana.

Slogans of ‘Avigayo Modi Avigayo (Modi is here)’ blared from loudspeakers placed on a truck that trailed the bus.

This is BJP’s Gaurav Yatra, its big pitch in rural Gujarat ahead of the assembly elections. The plan is to take PM Modi’s projects such as the Jan Dhan Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the Krishi Samman Nidhi to villages in Gujarat and ask for a seventh term for the BJP in the state.

“Whenever there is any wedding or any function or festival at our house, everyone gets busy in preparations. Similarly, election is the party’s festival and hence BJP has started its preparations,” said Union Minister Parshottam Rupala, who addressed the yatra at the BJP office at Modasa from where it started.

The yatra is on its second day after Shah flagged it off Friday from Shree Savaiyanath temple at Zanzarka village in Ahmedabad district.

“We have kept all major cities out of it [Gaurav Yatra]. So you can say this is rural centric. But we will soon come up with something for urban as well,” Rupala told ThePrint.

Similarly, Gaurav Yatra has already been flagged off from Zanzarka village in Ahmedabad district, Vansda taluka of Navsari district as well as two more that will travel from North Gujarat to Kutch and Mehsana. While Shah flagged off three yatras, Nadda was present at the launch of the other two. These yatras will conclude on October 20. As many as 144 constituencies of the total 182 are likely to be covered by the teams of Gaurav yatra.

While the Election Commission is yet to announce dates for the Gujarat election, assembly polls are expected to be held later this year.

Bid to woo rural Gujarat

In the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP had retained its hold on Gujarat, but its victory was mainly due to its performance in urban areas. Many parts of rural Gujarat, however, rallied with the Congress. The Congress’s tally had gone up from 57 to 71 in the hinterlands of Gujarat.

Gujarat BJP leaders, however, refuse that the Gaurav Yatra is an attempt to correct the rural voting patterns seen five years ago.

“It is not that we have targeted Congress-ruled constituencies. If we look at today’s route, though Modasa has a Congress MLA, but Prantij, Himmatnagar, Idar, all these constituencies have BJP MLAs,” said Mayank Nayak, Yatra coordinator, BJP.

BJP functionaries say Modi had started the concept of ‘Gaurav yatras’ when he was the Gujarat chief minister. The bus would stop at a few designated places where a cluster of BJP workers and supporters would gather to welcome the yatris.

Each day, BJP leaders on board conduct four public meetings at designated places, talking about how Gujarat’s Modi has been ruling the country, has popularised the ‘Gujarat model’, and has carved a respectable place for India in the pecking order of the world.

People listen to BJP leaders at a public meeting at Gujarat’s Talod constituency | Praveen Jain | ThePrint

“Because of Modiji, our country is well recognised in the world. Our Gujarat model is praised everywhere. And we have to take this forward and let people know what all Modiji and BJP have done,” Rupala told ThePrint.

‘We have to take Modi’s work to people’

The bus played songs on full volume praising the country, BJP and PM Modi  as it moved ahead. Crowds of BJP workers gathered wherever the bus stopped, but only a handful of them were common voters.

At a public meeting in Talod district, about 2,000 people, mostly BJP workers, gathered at the local APMC market wearing saffron caps and scarves imprinted with the lotus symbol, and the party’s name in English and Gujarati. Rupala addressed them. He was followed by Shankar Chaudhary, a BJP member and chairman of Palanpur-based Banas Dairy, who spoke about the ‘Gujarat model’.

“The BJP government is setting new records of all round development with the aim of making the entire country, including Gujarat, the best in the world,” Rupala claimed, asking the crowd to raise both their hands in support of Modi and the Gujarat CM.

Union minister Purshottam Rupala is welcomed by BJP workers at Gujarat’s Talod constituency | Praveen Jain | ThePrint

The crowd responded with raucous chants of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’.

Sitting in the crowd, BJP worker Sunitaben Gajjar who is from Talod told ThePrint: “Modi has worked well. All his schemes are good, and we have to let the people know what all he has worked on.”

“We came here because we trust BJP and Modi. His schemes worked wonderfully in the country and many people took benefits out of them and that’s why I trust him,” Jujarsinh Rabari, a farmer and one of the few non-BJP participants present at the public meeting, told ThePrint.

(Edited by Tony Rai)