Bardoli: Rahul Gandhi lands on Narendra Modi's turf today to participate in a "Vikas Khoj Yatra" or march in search of development, a direct challenge to the Gujarat Chief Minister's claim of development and growth in his state, which he pitches as a model for the nation.
Mr Gandhi will join the yatra, organised by the Congress' youth wing, at Bardoli, a tribal dominated area in south Gujarat and is expected to walk for about four kilometres before making a speech.
Bardoli is famous for Sardar Vallabhai Patel's civil disobedience campaign against the British. The Congress and Mr Modi recently engaged in a ferocious battle over Sardar Patel's legacy, after the former seemed to belatedly realise that the BJP has placed honouring the freedom fighter, a Congressman, high on its agenda.
Mr Modi is building a statue in the middle of the Narmada river that he vows will be the world's largest. His party recently launched a programme aimed at collecting iron implements from every village in the country for the statue. Sardar Patel is known as the "Iron man of India."
Mr Modi is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for the national elections due by May. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has not been named as the official candidate for the top post by his party, but senior leaders are clear that he will be PM should it retain power at the Centre this year.
Both leaders have in recent election speeches aggressively attacked each other.
Around the time Mr Gandhi lands in Gujarat this morning, Mr Modi will have traveled across the country to Imphal in Manipur, where he will address an election rally.
South Gujarat has for many years been seen as a Congress stronghold. The Bardoli Lok Sabha seat has been held by central minister Tushar Chaudhary for the last three terms.
The Congress had won 11 of Gujarat's 26 Lok Sabha seats in 2009.
In the Assembly elections in December 2012, Narendra Modi posted a spectacular victory, virtually wiping out the Congress in the state. Of the 35 Assembly seats in south Gujarat, the Congress could manage to win only 6. Mr Modi's BJP won 28.
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