“Secularism” is missing in the campaign for the Gujarat Assembly elections despite the state being known as the Hindutva laboratory.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was perhaps the first leader who took on chief minister Narendra Modi for playing “divisive politics” and telling him that minorities continued to feel “insecure” in Gujarat during his election meetings.
While projection of Mr Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate has made a section of the party leaders passive, the Congress is relying on local issues and the Keshubhai Patel factor to check Mr Modi.
In the 2002 state Assembly polls, the Congress had launched its election campaign from Ambaji, the holy place and one of the Shakti Peethas in the state. Elections were held against the backdrop of communal riots in the state.
In the 2007 polls, it had used the fake encounter of Shaikh Sohrabuddin case in a bid to prove how the Modi government had communalised the administration.
In these two elections “secularism “ was the main issue against Mr Modi’s style of functioning.
In the 2002, the RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had campaigned for the Congress while the BSP supremo Mayawati had shared dais with the top BJP leaders in the election rallies and campaigned for Mr Modi.
Even the NCP had moved closer to the Congress after the 2002 Gujarat Assembly polls diluting its stand on Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin and appealed secular parties to come together.