Ironically, as much as Modi tries to don the development mantle, his final resort remains Brand Hindutva only. It has only led to Modi working too hard, trying to be every where all the time — but alone in 2007, for more than the BJP and the Congress, it is he who cannot afford to lose. He draws strength from the voters who congregate and applaud more on his talk of the Sohrabuddin encounter than on the development he claims to have ushered in during the five years of his rule, which he says 13 chief ministers could not do in 45 years.

Gujarat might not command numerical leverage in national politics as its more populous northern cousins. It does much more, gripping the national psyche as it sets the agenda for the burgeoning urban middle class comfortable with its strident political posturing. And therein lies its importance. The Gujarat 2007 polls stand now not just as a referendum on Narendra Modi and his brand of politics that is a shade of saffron different from even the BJP’s. They are also a referendum on a divided Gujarat, which aspires to respectability for the fissures, which is made confident by its pride in the material prosperity it believes can pale social injustice.

ayesha.khan@expressindia.com