GUJARAT ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2012

Gujarat almost maintained its status quo — but not so the tribal areas. The upset came in South Gujarat, considered the Congress home turf, where the BJP did well, reports Sujata Anandan.

A clean sweep in urban areas and a strong performance in Saurashtra and the south contributed to the BJP’s victory in Gujarat, report Mahesh Langa and Abhijit Patnaik.

The Congress is happy that it won the Hill State without being decimated in Gujarat. The BJP’s central leadership’s glad that Narendra Modi won but not with the brute majority certain exit polls had projected for him, writes Vinod Sharma.

His competitors neutralised, former CM may become party’s face in state, Prasad Nichenametla & Smruti Koppikar report.

When he announced his party’s manifesto earlier in December, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi doffed his hat to an emerging ‘neo middle class’ as he termed it and laid out a political blueprint to woo this community. Ketaki Ghoge reports.

Has the BJP finally managed to break into the Muslim votebank? Or doesn’t the 9% Muslim population of Gujarat carry any weight any more? reports Ketaki Ghoge.

During the election campaign in Gujarat various radio channels in the state were wont to interrupt their broadcasts with the sound of a conch shell. Sujata Anandan reports.

The first phase of Gujarat polls registered a record turnout of 67% on Thursday, when 87 assembly segments of Saurashtra, south Gujarat and Ahmedabad rural went to polls. Mahesh Langa reports.

When chief minister Narendra Modi promised sops to farmers in the BJP manifesto — subsidising loan interest and agriculture summits on the lines of Vibrant Gujarat meets — he was addressing a long-standing grouse, which rings loud and clear even in his home district, Mehsana.

The fishing community of Kharwas deals in a mostly-taboo culinary item in the predominantly vegetarian Gujarat.

A decade after post-Godhra riots polarised voters on communal lines in Gujarat, chief minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third straight term in office largely on the development plank as he battles traditional rival Congress and a rebel BJP heavyweight bent upon upsetting his applecart.

There are only two days left for the first phase of polling in Gujarat on December 13, and Narendra Modi’s “war room” — from where he, Arun Jaitley and a few others monitor the campaign – is going full throttle. Harinder Baweja reports.