BJP to invoke 'Gujarati pride' to win maximum LS seats

Ahmedabad, Feb 11: BJP has decided to invoke "Gujarati pride" to woo voters and win maximum seats in Lok Sabha polls, where it did not fair as well as it did in the Assembly elections. The party is set to unleash a campaign from today, going to the people to make a plea and invoking pride of having a Gujarati as a possible prime minister of the country, BJP spokesperson Harshad Patel said.

The party has coined slogans like "fulse apdi chhati jyare vadapradhan hase ek Gujarati (there will be pride in our hearts when one Gujarati will be PM)' and "Let us make our Narendrabhai our PM."

Though BJP scored impressive victories in the consecutive Assembly elections, when it came to Lok Sabha polls, the party remained neck-and-neck with the Congress. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 14 seats, while the Congress had bagged 12 out of the total 26 in the state.

In 2009, the Congress had won 11 while BJP emerged victorious on 15 seats. On the contrary, during Assembly elections held in 2002, 2007 and 2012, people gave a thumping majority to BJP. Now, in a bid to win maximum number of Lok Sabha seats from the home state of Modi, poll campaign managers of the Gujarat BJP have decided to bank upon "performance, popularity and pride" factors.

"Though we do not personally know Satya Nedella, who has been made the CEO of Microsoft, we take pride in the fact that he is an Indian. In the same way, Gujaratis, who are not associated with the BJP, also are taking pride in the fact that one among them could become the prime minister of the country," Patel said.

"Pride has been associated with our earlier leaders who made it big on national level, like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Morarji Desai," he said. "Even some of those associated with the Congress have told us privately that it would be great to have a Gujarati as the PM of the country," he further said.

"From today we are going to people with our programme 'dhandan' (donation), for which a slogan has been coined - 'Ek Vote Kamal pe Note'. During this door-to-door drive of donation collection, we will also invoke Gujarati pride and appeal people to make Modi the PM," Patel said.

The BJP has set a target to win all the 26 Lok Sabha seats of the state during the elections to be held in April/May this year, where winning every single constituency will matter for Modi to reach the magical figure of 272.

In Gandhinagar

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with Senior party leader L K Advani donating for the Modi for PM Fund for Election in Gandhinagar on Monday.

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Japanese delegate presenting a Momento to Gujarat Chief Minister Naredra Modi in Gandhinagar on Monday.

In Gandhinagar

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with senior BJP leader L K Advani during the inaugration of new BJP office "Shri Kamlam" at Gandhinagar on Monday.

In Gandhinagar

A BJP worker arranges masks of Narendra Modi ahead of his rally in Bhubaneswar on Monday.

PTI