Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched aggressive campaigning for his party in Gujarat. The BJP seems to have found newfound strength with the leader's entry in the arena. Videos are being circulated more often, and radio jingles of the PM's meeting are being played more frequently. Listeners are urged to “come and watch the son of Gujarat”. In the state on Monday, Modi held public meetings in Bhuj, Jasdan and Dhari in Saurashtra, and Kadodara in Surat. However sources of the Bharatiya Janta Party said the party is concerned with the scale of the audience in Saurashtra. The CID said there were only about 7000 people in Jasdhan, and 10,000 in Dhari, gathered two watch the charismatic leader speak.
BJP sources said the two regions are dominated by the Patel caste and is the main point of the Patel quota movement. The low turnout was nothing but a minor inconvenience as Modi garnered over 40,000 people each in his rallies in Bhuj and Kamrej. The leader made steady and stingy remarks at the Congress, accusing it of being anti-poor. “The Congress dislikes me because I come from a poor background. Yes, a person from a poor family has become PM. They do not fail to hide their contempt for this fact. Yes, I sold tea, but I did not sell the nation,” he said to roaring applause.
He lashed out at the Opposition, saying people of the state would not forgive those who are “insulting the son of Gujarat”. “You dare to come to Gujarat and say things against the son of Gujarat? Will any Gujarati forgive people who make charges against the son of Gujarat? No Gujarati will endure this insult. This is my mother and and I am its son. You (people) have helped me grow as its son. You have helped shape me. You gave strength and nurtured the good in me, the people of Gujarat and Gujarat my motherland,” he said in Bhuj.
Modi also paid respects to Kutch's local deity, Ma Ashapura, at her temple Mata no Madh. The visit was symbolic for BJP's fortunes as the constituency of Abdasa is a Congress bastion.
