Gujarat BJP President Jitu Vaghani and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani with Amit Shah in Gandhinagar.
Hitting his home turf for the fourth time this month, BJP president Amit Shah attended a series of programmes in Gujarat on Friday, including the felicitation of young Patel leader Jitu Vaghani as the state party chief. Mr Shah visiting Gujarat so often indicates that he will play a more active role in state politics as a run up to the 2017 elections.
The BJP president's frequent visits come at a time the state BJP is facing a huge challenge from the ongoing Dalit and Patel agitation.
Addressing about 10,000 party workers in Gandhinagar at Mr Vaghani's felicitation programme, Mr Shah said, "The opposition is dreaming that they would be able to win Gujarat, but let me tell them their dreams will stay just dreams. We will win with a bigger margin in 2017."
Mr Shah tried to draw a direct connect with party workers in an attempt to rejuvenate the cadre.
Though the party president refused to make direct references to the Dalit or Patel agitations in the state at the felicitation programme, sources in the party revealed that Mr Shah had directed the state leaders including the new chief minister and his protege Vijay Rupani to continue holding talks with representatives of both communities to minimise the damage ahead of the state polls.
Mr Rupani, who also addressed the event, said that the government was prioritising the area of social welfare. "Important element of the governance is sensitivity... sensitivity towards Dalits, scheduled tribes, poor and other sections of the society," he commented.
With former chief minister Anandiben Patel also attending the party events, it seemed that Mr Shah at least for now has managed to forge a semblance of unity in a state unit which till a fortnight back was looking clueless on managing the ongoing crisis.