Ahmedabad:
With Shankar Singh Vaghela at the helm, the Congress has hit the streets of Gujarat. Over the next 10 days, the Sardar Sandesh Yatra will travel across the state with senior party leaders holding public rallies. This is unmistakably the launch of the Congress' campaign for the elections in Gujarat, which have to be held before December. Hoping for a fourth consecutive term is Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. In their speeches, Congress leaders will focus on exposing Mr Modi's misrule - a job made considerably tougher by the fact that even his severest critics acknowledge the development Mr Modi has fostered in his home state.
If the Congress is warming up early, it's because it took a hammering in the 2002 and 2007 assembly elections. The municipal polls held in four major cities including Ahmedabad didn't change the party's fortune. The only glimmer of good news came Gandhinagar, where the Congress won the elections to the new Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation. Though Gandhinagar is represented by BJP stalwart LK Advani in the Lok Sabha, the area has traditionally been a Congress stronghold.
"We have to reach out to the people and expose the lies about development Modi spreads. We do believe that this time around the doors of Gandhinagar will open for us," said Mr Vaghela. The yatra will culminate on January 13 in the town of Anand in central Gujarat, a Patel-dominated area. With a 16% share of the vote, the rich Patils are worth wooing. So the Congress yatra will travel to Patel pockets in the Saurashtra region. On January 21, it will extend to a convention of Levua Patels - rich farmers and landlord. Though the organisers claim this is a religious event, the political flavor will come from an address by Keshubhai Patel, a former chief minister and Mr Modi's arch-rival.
The Congress roadshow will also visit parts of Central and South Gujarat r which see a concentration of the 50% Other Backward Caste or OBC population. Till the mid-90s, the OBCs and Patels were loyal to the Congress. Their return is key to the revival of the Congress.
Mr Modi has also entered election mode. He has been holding communal harmony fasts across the state - Godhra, where the communal riots of 2002 began, is expected to see Mr Modi soon for one of these fasts next month. The stain of India's biggest riots since independence have kept Mr Modi from moving to the national political landscape. In these elections, he will attempt to prove that he is a leader equally acceptable to Muslims and minorities.
He has already spoken against the Central government's decision to create a sub-quota of 4.5% for Muslims. This is a subset of the existing 27% reservation in government jobs and universities for Other Backward Castes. Mr Modi says that by creating a quota within a quota, the Congress is turning under-represented sections against each other. ''The Congress Party just believes in dividing the society on the basis of caste. They have a single point agenda of decimating society," he said at an OBC convention in Gandhinagar on Wednesday.