BJP's pre-poll manoeuvring to woo back voters, keep its hold over Gujarat

The BJP's problem is what rabbit can it pull out of the conjurer's hat?

In just one week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Gujarat reneged on two significant decisions: Linking the Tapi, Par and Narmada rivers, and withdrawing the Gujarat Cattle Control (Keeping and Moving) in Urban Areas Bill, 2022. The moves would have impacted the lives and interests of important electoral constituents the BJP nurtured and nourished in the decades it ruled Gujarat — the Adivasis and the pastoral, quasi-nomadic Maldharis.

On March 29, the Bhupendra Patel government announced it would suspend the river linking project, following a late-night meeting in Delhi on March 29 among central ministers Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman,