(LiveMint)
With his homeboy image burnished by a visit-a-month over the past year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lent a personal touch to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) campaign for Gujarat elections—one that could come handy in the party’s quest for a fifth straight win.
From unveiling a string of development projects to mass mailing voters ahead of his party’s doorstep campaigns to holding rallies in a bid to persuade fence-sitters, Gujarat elections has the stamp of its most popular leader written all over it.
The four-time Gujarat chief minister even made a personal appeal to voters at a rally on Monday, describing himself as a son of Gujarat and declaring that his home state will not tolerate the Congress’s “baseless allegations against a son of the soil”. The ruling party recently launched a four-in-one rath campaign centred around Modi to reach out to voters.
“There are four levels. On the top-most part of the chariot a live street play is performed by artists on the theme of development. At the next level, a film on Modi’s public speeches is displayed. Using digital technology, a member of the audience can be a part of the crowd that the PM is addressing,” said Mahesh Kaswala, convenor of BJP Gujarat’s publicity cell.
