by: Nav Jeevan

Amit Shah, Gujarat CM, CR Paatil confer with PM Modi on Gujarat poll strategy

  • Gujarat poll dates not out along with HP to give more advantage to BJP: Congress

NE NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, GANDHINAGAR, OCT 14
Hours after the Election Commission announced that assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, along with Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and the party’s state unit chief CR Paatil, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Friday, sources said.

The meeting was held at the prime minister’s official residence here and the four leaders are likely to have discussed several issues related to Gujarat, they said.
According to sources, the agenda was the forthcoming elections to the 182-member Assembly. It is expected that the Election Commission, which announced elections to the Himachal Pradesh Assembly on November 12, is likely to announce the dates for Gujarat after Diwali.

With the BJP setting a target of crossing 150 seats, the nature of the campaign, of the rallies etc was discussed at length while the issue of how many events the Prime Minister will participate in, which Union Ministers will be drafted for poll management, as well the strategy to counter the Aam Aadmi Party, which is seeking to emerge as a major force in the state, were also expected to figure.

Gujarat poll dates not out along with HP to give BJP more advantage: Congress

The Congress on Friday alleged that dates for Gujarat assembly polls were not announced along with Himachal Pradesh so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets more time to make “mega promises and inaugurations”.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said his party is not surprised over the development after the Election Commission announced poll dates only for the hill state and not for Gujarat.

“Obviously, this has been done to give more time to the PM to make some mega promises and carry out more inaugurations. Not at all surprising,” Ramesh said.

On not announcing the dates for Gujarat assembly polls, it said various factors, including convention, gap in qualifying dates, and weather had been considered before taking a decision.

The poll panel also said announcement of multiple state elections leads to longer wait in declaration of results.