Gujarat Elections: The Sub-Text of Modi’s ‘Hattrick’—High Tech Populism and the ‘Neo-middle Class’

This article, while it will pay attention to the opposition parties—the Congress and the GPP—intends, in its first part, to scrutinize the mainstays of Narendra Modi’s election campaign with special references to high tech populism, his banalization of Hindutva, his notion of Gujarati patriotism and his defence of what he calls the ‘neo-middle class’. The second part that deals with the electoral results and the citizens’ voting behaviour, will show that Modi’s constituency is a by-product of an increasingly polarized pattern of social change and economic growth, the BJP receiving stronger support from urban dwellers, whatever their caste, gender and level of education may be.