Opposition parties wary of BJP’s election posters in Gujarat

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules at the Centre and in many other States and is making a serious bid to retain its Govt. in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State of Gujarat, has released a few posters ahead of next month’s Assembly elections in the State, thus meting out a warning to the Opposition parties including Congress.

Gujarat would vote in two phases on 09th and 14th December after which counting of votes would be taken up on 18th December. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and BJP’s national president Amit Shah have taken keen interest in ensuring that their respective parties emerge victorious in next month’s Assembly polls. Observers point out that the dominant Patel community, which has fallen out with the BJP, may support the Congress this time, thus upsetting the ruling party’s calculations.

In an apparent attempt to unite all Hindus including the Patel community under a common umbrella, the BJP has asked the voters through posters across the State as to whom they would prefer among RAM and HAJ. One poster depicts RAM referring to the trio of chief-minister Rubani-Amit Shah-Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) in the backdrop of a few Hindu temples.

The other set of posters refer to HAJ as Hardik Patel-Alpesh Thakur-Jignesh (Dalit leader) whose images have been shown in the backdrop of a few mosques.  The poster is a clear effort by the BJP to directly convey its opinion to the voters that Hindus should invariably vote for the BJP’s Lotus symbol. The posters have since been dubbed as ‘purely communal’ by the Congress and other parties.