Vibrant Gujarat Summit: How BJP is wooing middle class with big investments, jobs

Middle-class traders are known to be one of the BJP’s key constituencies, and as the ruling party heads into seeking a third consecutive mandate for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024, it is this core bloc that is being reached out to in earnest in Gujarat. The next edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit is scheduled in January 2024, but for the past two months, announcements of inked MoUs that will bring investments to the state and create employment have been making headlines.

Based on information released by the Bhupendra Patel government, MoUs worth Rs 8,374 crore have already been signed over the past three months, mostly with companies that have had a longstanding relationship with the state. Six MoUs were signed in the last week of July—of these, three totalling Rs 775 crore were inked with ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel, Ingersoll Rand and Terrex India in the engineering sector. An MoU worth Rs 290 crore was signed in the biotechnology sector and a Rs 294 crore worth of MoU inked in the textiles industry.

In the first week of August, MoUs worth Rs 1,113 crore were signed, with a potential to generate over 9,500 jobs. “Opportunities will be created in various sectors, including 2,100 jobs in textiles, 700 in engineering, 500 in pharmaceuticals and 3,085 in the chemicals sector,” a statement released by the government stated. Consequently, it was announced that Shell Energy will invest Rs 3,500 crore to set up a renewable energy plant in Banaskantha, to be operational by 2027. Shell has been present in Gujarat for the last two decades.

In the last week of August, four MoUs with a potential capital investment of Rs 1,000 crore and a capacity to generate over 10,000 employment opportunities in the next five years were signed, the state government revealed.

This is the countdown to the main event that is four months away. In keeping with the hype around the event and its potential to spread the feel-good factor among the middle class amidst rising inflation, smaller regional versions of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit will be held in the towns of Gujarat for local MSMEs, which invariably do not participate in the grand biannual international summit being organised in Gandhinagar since 2003.

According to data released in the Socio-Economic Review of Gujarat 2022-23, tabled in the legislative assembly in February, “During the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2003 to 2019, a total of 104,872 projects were filed for MoUs and investment intentions. As on October 31, 2022, of the total registered projects by the 2019 summit, 71,323 were completed and 3,080 in the commissioned stage.” However, the actual employment generated, wherein locals get an opportunity, has been a subject of much scepticism.

As the population and thus educated job-seekers rise by the day, these announcements are expected to bring enthusiasm amongst the youth and the urban middle class. According to the Socio-Economic Review of Gujarat, 314,000 job seekers were registered on the live register of the employment exchanges as on October 31, 2022, of which around 300,000 were educated. This number has been contested by the Opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), particularly ahead of the assembly polls last December. During the campaign, unemployment was a major issue raised by AAP and found resonance among people, with attendance in the party’s rallies considered as a parameter to gauge. However, the huge turnouts did not convert into votes for AAP—five seats in the 182-member assembly.

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