BJP aims to fly high with new airport in Gujarat – The New Indian Express
Express press service
NEW DELHI: The future international airport in Gujarat’s Sourashtra region is attracting the attention of political analysts as the state heads towards assembly elections early next year. Some of them are comparing the greenfield airport project with the Jewar airport project, located on the outskirts of Delhi NCR, which was launched just before the Uttar Pradesh elections. Even though the ruling UP BJP had feared big losses in the agriculture-dominated west of the UP, the development narrative – centered on the mega airport project – woven by the ruling dispensation has paid dividends in the region.
BJP leaders in Gujarat also hope that Greenfield Airport, being built in Rajkot at a cost of `1,405 crore on over 1,032 hectares of non-farm land, will help it overcome anti-incumbency among voters in parched Saurashtra. The new airport should be inaugurated a few months before the elections.
Being the fourth largest city in Gujarat, Rajkot is the commercial center of Saurashtra. In the previous assembly election, the BJP, promising an international airport among other soap operas, won 31 out of 54 seats – including seven out of eight in Rajkot – in Saurashtra. “This time too, if the new airport is completed and dedicated, no doubt the BJP will have more seats than they won last time,” remarked local trader Ramesh Patel, who claimed n didn’t vote for the BJP last time. but said he would vote for the party if the airport became operational.
There were several small vendors, bus drivers and students eagerly awaiting the opening of the new airport. Brajesh Kumar, 35, a book kiosk manager in Rajkot, said: “We didn’t vote for the BJP last time, but we will consider it if the airport is open.”
Manu Bhai, 45, a clothes salesman, says the airport will win BJP electoral support depending on when it goes into operation and who inaugurates it; PM Modi or someone else. Virendra Sachdeva, a member of the BJP’s ‘good governance cell’, believes that development works such as Rajkot airport would help the party gain greater electoral support.