PM Modi To Campaign In Gujarat On Sunday, First Visit After Poll Dates Are Announced

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will head to Gujarat this Sunday, his first visit since the announcement of poll dates for his home state.

The Prime Minister will address rallies in Bhavnagar, Surendranagar and Valsad.

The polls in Gujarat, where the BJP has been in power for over two decades, will be held in two phases - on December 1 and 5.

The votes in Gujarat will be counted on the same day as Himachal Pradesh - December 8 - despite the two-week gap in the announcement of dates for the two states.

The visit comes a week after the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy that killed 135. Earlier, this week, the Prime Minister, who was on a Gujarat tour, had visted the bridge collapse site and also spoke to the survivors.

The BJP has been in power in Gujarat since 1998 and Modi served as its chief minister for nearly 13 years before becoming prime minister in 2014.

Home minister Amit Shah last month predicted that the BJP would retain power in the 182-member Gujarat assembly with a two-thirds majority. In the last state election five years ago, the BJP won 99 seats while the main opposition Congress ended up with 77.

Facing criticism over unemployment, the BJP has announced big-ticket projects in recent months in Gujarat, including investment of 1.54 trillion rupees ($18.58 billion) by Vedanta Ltd and Taiwan's Foxconn to set up semiconductor and display plants.

An aircraft manufacturing project, valued at 219.35 billion rupees ($2.65 billion), by Tata group and Airbus also went to Gujarat where PM Modi faces a challenge from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has promised voters subsidies on electricity and other bills.

The Congress, BJP's principal rival at the national stage, says it is running a "low-key campaign" in the state amid criticism that the party is barely visible.