The poll campaign heats up in Gujarat, PM Modi’s home turf. Can the ruling BJP stave off the challenge from the Congress and AAP?

PM Modi waves to crowds at the Khadi Utsav event as CM Patel
watches; (Photo: AP)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Bhuj on August 28 to inaugurate the Narmada canal that will bring water to parched Kutch from south Gujarat. The state is up for assembly polls in December and at a rally later, surprisingly, he brought up the old bogey of conspiracies to defame Gujarat after the 2002 riots when he was chief minister (2001-14). This was unusual for the PM, a deviation from the script of the past couple of years where he had stopped talking about the past and was focused more on future opportunities for the state.

PM Modi waves to crowds at the Khadi Utsav event as CM Patelwatches; Kejriwal with AAP leaders at a tiranga yatra in Mehsana in June; (Photo: ANI)