In a carefully crafted strategy for the coming elections in Gujarat, the Congress is avoiding personal attacks on chief minister Narendra Modi. Instead, the party will target him on development issues.
As part of its campaign material, the party has come out with a CD in which it
seeks to reach out to the “innocent” people with a subtle message — they are being taken for a ride by the BJP government in the name of development.
Titled Gandhi Navu Gujarat (Mahatma Gandhi’s Gujarat), the CD has three songs — uncho uthavo haath (raise your hands), bholu Gujarat (innocent Gujarat) and ma gurjari no haath (mother Gujarat).
While the first song features the party’s symbol hand, the second tries to corner the BJP on governance and development issues, besides growing unemployment in the state.
The video shows people of Gujarat with blind-folds and they remove it only in the end and are seen rushing toward the Congress.
“The blindfold is a metaphor for false propaganda and an autocratic regime, which restrains the innocent people from seeing the truth,” said a Gujarat Congress leader.
The third song is based on a poem by famous Gujrati poet Narmad, who had penned it even before the Congress came into existence.
“The central theme of our campaign is that we want to build a new Gujarat,” state Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia told HT.
The party has also started collecting applications forms for the “100-yard plot scheme” in all the 26 districts of the state. State Congress leaders claim that around 5 million forms had been distributed among women after the party announced the sop, if it comes to power in Gujarat.