With the entire nation watching him, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will be spending Friday, counting day in Gujarat. With most exit polls predicting a majority for the National Democratic Alliance, the mood in the BJP is upbeat.
“BJP workers are awaiting the results with a lot of enthusiasm. We are thankful to the people,” BJP leader Purushottam Rupala told The Hindu .
The State BJP has scheduled two “vijay utsav” programmes or victory rallies for Friday. The first rally will be in Vadodara and the other in Ahmedabad late evening.
Mr. Modi will spend most of the day in Gandhinagar and head for Vadodara later.
“At the airport, he will be given a rousing welcome. Later he will address a public meeting in the city. The Vadodara rally is to thank the people in his constituency and the Ahmedabad one is a State-level programme,” Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said. “Many people have embarked upon their own plans for celebrations. Many shops have declared that they would be serving tea and other fare for free,” he said.
Mr. Modi heads for Varanasi on Saturday.
For its part, the Congress camp remained hopeful of a good performance in Gujarat. “We do not think the NDA will do as well as the exit polls have suggested. We still think a Congress-led government will rule the Centre,” State Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.
