BJP plays the freebies game to match AAP's goodies for the Gujarati voters

The prelude to the polls also saw mega projects unveiled by the Centre and the handing out of a few sops to match the breathless pace at which AAP has promised an array of goodies to voters

As the Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule for the Gujarat Assembly polls after Diwali, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — now in power for 27 years (with small breaks) in Gandhinagar — has swung into mission mode.

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are on a relentless campaign on home terrain, the state BJP has galvanised the cadre through a fortnight-long “Gaurav Yatra”, which focused largely on the Adivasi-dominated areas. The BJP’s feedback was that while it lost “significantly” in the Adivasi belt in the last state polls, it gained nearly 50 per