Cong eyes comeback as BJP readies for Modi hat-trick

D-day Gujarat Parivartan Party hopes to play spoilsport for CM, confident of bagging 15 seats.

The headquarters of state BJP and Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), which wore a festive look till December 17 when the second and final phase of polling was held, did not see much activity on Wednesday, even as poll results are to be declared tomorrow.

On the other hand, the Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) office was abuzz with activities despite the fact that it did not hope to win more than a dozen seats.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who spent almost the entire Monday at the Khanpur office, was at Gandhinagar today for his present government's last Cabinet meeting.

Even national spokesperson Nirmala Seetharaman, who was camping here for nearly a month, was back in Delhi. She told The Indian Express that she might be coming for the "swearing-in ceremony".

Spokesperson Jagdish Bhavsar, who was busy scanning the list of BJP workers, said, "Around 15 workers will be deployed in each constituency (on Thursday) to give ground report from the counting halls. Till 11 am, we should have a clear picture. With four Congress MLAs joining the BJP, we are already 126-strong in the Assembly."

Senior leaders Anandiben Patel, Narhari Amin, Kaushikbhai Patel, V Sathish and Bhikhubhai Dalsania met later in the day to discuss media management and results. Sources said many of these leaders had a closed-door meeting with Modi today.

At the Congress office, none of the senior party leaders, be it GPCC chief Arjun Modhwadia, Congress Legislature Party leader Shaktisinh Gohil or state election campaign committee chairman Shankersinh Vaghela, was seen for the last two days.

The only visitors were mediapersons, who looked for reactions of party leaders to exit polls suggesting a landslide victory for the BJP. The only person to tackle them all was state spokesperson Manish Doshi.

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