(ET)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit his home state Gujarat at least twice in September with plans to highlight ambitious development projects that some hope will galvanize the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), still smarting from a recent high-stakes election loss to the Congress, ahead of assembly elections.
A string of planned events, including laying the grounds for the ambitious ‘bullet train’ and dedicating the Sardar Sarovar Dam to the nation, are likely to set tone for the BJP’s campaign for Gujarat elections due this year.
The ruling party, which suffered a serious setback earlier in August when it failed to block the re-nomination of veteran Congress leader Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha election that had become a prestige issue, is now pinning its hopes on the visits by Modi, the star campaigner of the party. The high speed rail network between Ahmedabad and Mumbai at Sabarmati railway station in Ahmedabad, said two senior government officials aware of the PM’s visit.
