How Modi Avoided Any Reference To Former Chief Minister Rupani In Gujarat

Much has been written about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s immense interest in his own state of Gujarat that goes to polls later this year. Of course, Gujaratis do not need him to do a 9 km road show from Ahmedabad airport to the BJP party office in Gandhinagar to vote back a party that has been in power in the state since 1995. It is enough for them that Modi is PM; it makes every Gujarati feel he is presiding over India’s fate from South Block.  But then, when it comes to elections and people’s choices Modi is not one to take any chances. The Gujarat state has already seen three CMs — Anandiben Patel, Vijay Rupani and Bhupendra Patel – after he left it in 2014 and became PM. Rupani’s five years in office ended in September 2021 after becoming an area of concern for Modi. It has been his effort to ensure that the fall out of the Rupani years did not dovetail incumbent CM Bhupendra Patel’s tenure. That is why in the two days that he spent in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, Modi consciously avoided sending out grim reminders from the Rupani era. He even avoided sharing a platform with Home Minister Amit Shah, who was in Gandhinagar on one of his official programmes. Reason: Rupani was seen as being close to Shah.