Gujarat Assembly Elections 2012: Stakes are high for PM-aspirant Narendra Modi

AHMEDABAD: A television channel which wanted to put up a giant screen in front of the BJP headquarters in Khanpur had made all the preparations for a live telecast of the result day on Thursday. But they were told on Wednesday morning by some BJP officebearers that there was no guarantee of safety for the expensive equipment if the results went bad for the BJP.

The channel selected an alternative site, until a worried chief minister’s office intervened and re-directed them to Khanpur — a strangely named Hindutva hub of Ahmedabad with a Muslim basti all around. There is nervousness in the BJP, even as Modi himself went into a huddle, asking the same question on every Gujarati’s mind, “Shun laage chhe, boss?”

Full Coverage of Assembly Elections 2012
Modi is believed to have settled at a figure of 112-118 seats after talking to all his ministers and district party heads, besides some shadowy techies in his office who were flummoxed by the 71.32% voter turnout.

Close aide Amit Shah is betting on 123 seats and Narhari Amin, who recently changed sides, at 125. They don’t feel that the ‘Ghar nu ghar’ of the Congress worked at all. The poor, they believe, supported the middle-class hero.

Preparations are on in full swing for the swearing in of the new government at four different locations, the biggest one being the Sardar Patel stadium. Some say given his penchant for symbols, Modi would like to time it with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthday which falls on the Christmas day — December 25.

For Narendra Modi, the stakes are perhaps the highest — a bad show here would certainly impair his national ambitions. It was a confident-looking chief minister who discussed water problems in Saurashtra at the weekly cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. On the other hand, Shankersinh Vaghela, self-proclaimed captain of Congress, has been telling supporters to be ready to form the next government . He looks supremely confident and is in close touch with Keshubhai Patel on the likely scenario of a hung assembly or marginal win.

The RSS is also closely monitoring the situation and would like to keep negotiations open with Keshubhai, just in case he emerges as a force which could tilt the power balance . The GPP camp fears attempts at horsetrading . But the GPP also faces the prospect of being completely irrelevant in case Modi gets a sweeping majority.