Modi’s BJP Confident to Sway Voters Smitten by His Charisma in Home State Gujarat
BJP Leader Amit Shah during an election campaign in Sanand, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, on April 18.
Photographer: Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty ImagesEach day, Bloomberg journalists take you across a selection of towns and cities as they gear up for the big vote.
Hi, I am Paresh Jatakia and I write about IPOs and new stocks from Mumbai. I hail from Bhavnagar in the western Indian state of Gujarat, home to the world’s largest ship-breaking yard. The constituency, where elections will be held on May 7, has voted for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in every poll since 1991 and the party won all seats in the state in the previous federal election in 2019. Things may be the same this time as well, with the BJP using an uncontested victory scored by a candidate in Surat to project its sway and deflect from controversy generated by the chief minister’s remarks about the powerful Rajput community.