New Delhi: As the battle lines are drawn in Gujarat, the BJP believes that it can manage to secure hefty vote share, despite the mounting threat from Am Aadmi Party.
The state will vote in two phases on December 1 and 5 to pick up 182 MLAs to the state assembly.
Long before the campaign was to start, AAP had begun whipping up anti-incumbency feelings against the ruling BJP which apparently helped AAP getting some foothold in the state.
Now Union Minister Piyush Goyal put up a brave face announcing that the BJP Is facing no competition in the state, adding that his party will win at least 150 seats against, by far, its maximum number of 149.
Talking at the India Today Conclave Mumbai, he hoped that with PM Modi enjoying huge popularity people of the state made up their minds to back the BJP.
Spurning at the threat from AAP after it entered the polls in Gujarat, he said the people of Punjab were regretting their decision of bringing to power the Delhi party.
He said that people of Gujarat were intelligent and would make well-thought out decisions, adding that he had been to the interior areas of the state where people were praising PM Modi, looking for the BJP to continue in power.
Although AAP has been at the forefront of campaigning, the party has not yet made major inroads in the state, observers say.
However, the Delhi party can boast that though an outlier it could at least trouble the BJP's top leadership to scramble for staunching the party in the state and is awake from the slumber.
Can AAP turn the situation into a winning vote base thus toppling the BJP bastion in its efforts to capture the Delhi?
Delhi and Punjab are smaller states in comparison to Gujarat where AAP's organisational network is still too poor to take on the entrenched powers of the BJP.
AAP is largely relying on the popularity of its top leader Kejriwal but it is yet to be seen how far this will in the state where P Modi has strong fan base across the party politics.
There might be sympathy for AAP but to take such voters to the polling booth requires booth level organisation, which is missing, for now, NDTV reported.
As for Punjab, AAP's win owes greatly to the popularity of the chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who pulled large crowds to his rallies.
In Gujarat AAP has yet to find a popular face that people can look forward to, because its state leaders are not known across the state.
AAP, according to analysts, started it campaign by offering " Delhi model of governance' against Modi's Gujarat model which quickly struck chords with middles class, until Kejriwal came with the idea of deities on currencies.
With this extreme step that gave the feeling that AAP was trying to beat to it the BJP in Hindutva image, educated urban middle class found it hard to stomach.
However, the BJP has not taken AAP lightly though it may seem in the words of Union Minister Piyush Goyal—the BJP is hardworking to keep AAP at bay in the state.