The Congress believes that the December Assembly elections will finally deliver the knockout blow to the “Gujarat model” that is built on “corruption and commission”, as exposed again by the Morbi bridge tragedy and its aftermath.

“Problems like unemployment and high prices are (hurting) the entire country. But Gujarat is faced with worse problems,” the Congress’s minder for the state, Raghu Sharma, said after the announcement of the election dates.

“It has become the centre of drug-trafficking. It’s a dry state and liquor is delivered on order. Students faced 22 paper leaks. All this cannot happen without political patronage.”

While the Congress has been out of power in Gujarat since the mid-1990s, the BJP’s prolonged rule has been able to keep the political nemesis of “anti-incumbency” at bay thanks to Narendra Modi’s impenetrable hegemony.

Modi sold the “Gujarat model” of governance to the entire country, becoming Prime Minister primarily on the strength of the hype created around his tenure (2001-14) as chief minister although it was marked by horrific communal riots and brazenly polarising politics.

The Congress, which has struggled unsuccessfully to convince the voters about the hollowness of the “Gujarat model” for over a decade, hopes the current mess would make it impossible for the BJP to sustain the hype.

“On the same day when the Prime Minister laid the foundation for a project to make airplanes, the entire country saw that the BJP government can’t repair a bridge. The Gujarat model is made of corruption and commission,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, referring to the bridge collapse in Morbi.

“In the Gujarat model, do you hand over the contract to maintain a bridge to a company which makes wall clocks and mosquito rackets? Who awarded the contract? Why was our demand for a judicial probe not accepted?” Khera said.

“They formed a special investigation team; nobody trusts SITs in Gujarat. Where are the reports of the last four SITs? The state mourning was delayed after the Morbi tragedy because Modi had government functions lined up. Is that the Gujarat model?”

Sharma said: “Modi doesn’t cancel his functions, (held) at government expense, because he has to wrap them up before the model code of conduct comes into force.

“The Morbi civil hospital gets a facelift before his visit. The patient who had minor bruises on the knee is shown with a plastered leg for the Prime Minister’s visit. The FIR doesn’t contain any names and poor workers are being targeted, ignoring serious lapses.”

The Congress isn’t relying only on tragedies like Morbi to corner the BJP.

“What happened during Covid is known to all. People died outside hospitals in private vehicles for want of medicines, ventilators and oxygen. Three lakh people died (in Gujarat),” Sharma said.

“People were so angry that the entire government (in the state) was changed.…”

The Congress plans to release a “chargesheet” against the state government in a couple of days.