PM Modi to visit Gujarat in January before local body polls

Gandhinagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Gujarat in January again, according to sources. Local body elections in Gujarat are to be held next February, including elections of 6 municipal corporations, 81 municipalities, 31 district panchayats and 231 taluka panchayats.  

The Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Gujarat next month to inaugurate the newly constructed building of Sardar Dham, an organisation of the BJP’s traditional vote-bank, the Patidar Samaj. Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel recently said that the shilanyas for the proposed AIIMS building in Rajkot will also be performed by PM Modi soon. The foundation stone-laying is expected to take place before the elections too.

PM Modi’s visit is expected to benefit the BJP, after the party suffered heavy casualties during the 2015 local body elections and 2017 assembly elections. Due to the 2015 results, the first woman Chief Minister of the state, Anandiben Patel, had to resign from her post. Following the collapse in 2015, the BJP, which has ruled the region in the last two decades, had come to a standstill with 99 seats in the 2017 elections.

State BJP president C.R. Patil has come up with a plan to win all the seats in the local body elections as part of the preparations ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections. PM Modi’s visit is expected to affect eight districts of Kutch-Saurashtra and eight districts of North Gujarat. As a result, the Congress’ hold over the areas where it won in the 2015 local body elections is expected to weaken and the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to directly benefit from it. 

Apart from Sardar Dham and AIIMS, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also scheduled to inaugurate other developmental projects during his visit to Gujarat in January.