Congress and BJP start preparing for the big fight in 2012

Ahmedabad, July 11: With an aim to clinch a victory in the December 2012 assembly polls to be held in Gujarat, the Congress and the BJP, the two big contenders, have already started preparations.

Since the BJP, under the leadership of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, is not ready to be complacent of its good performance in the past state elections, has worked out a detailed strategy for the tussle. Whereas, under its new state president Arjun Modhvadia, the Congress has decided not only to attack the ruling party, but also to mend its own house.

In order to make the party stronger, the BJP has started wooing the party dissidents, with substantial support bases, who had left the party before the state elections in 2007.

Earlier this week, one of the dissident former MLA Balu Tanti, who belongs to the strong leuva Patel community of Saurashtra, was re-inducted into the BJP.

Party sources said, "Another rebel and former MLA Sunil Oza, who had left the party before the 2007 polls is also likely to join the party soon. Joining of these leaders will help the BJP as they are strong in their local areas."

To further strengthen the party, the BJP has decided to hold 1,800 meetings of party workers in all the 182 constituencies of the state.

"The ''tiffin meetings'' as they call it, will discuss the over all strategy for the upcoming polls and will go deep into the analysis of population of each constituency after the de-limitation," party spokesperson I K Jadeja said.

He added that this is for the first time that the state is going to polls after the de-limitation of the constituencies.

The BJP has also clearly told its workers not to indulge in corruption, as it would be one of the main issues that the party would take up to corner the Congress following various scams at the Centre, party sources said.

On the other hand, the Congress has decided to focus on two things ahead of the polls: first is to set its house for the big fight and secondly to launch an attack against the Modi-led BJP government and its policies.

Arjun Modhvadia has been touring various parts of the state to meet party workers, advising them to stay focused on defeating Modi-led BJP in the polls.

He is also giving a tough message to the faction-ridden party to put the internal differences aside, to clinch a victory in the polls, Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

He has also taken up a drive to improve the party infrastructure by opening offices in each taluka of the state, so that people can represent their questions to the opposition parties directly, Doshi said.

"We have also decided to hold a series of agitations in the coming weeks on the issues of farmers, students, poor people and villagers.

"This time, we have decided to give a tough fight to the BJP at all levels in the run up to the elections," Doshi said.

PTI