A Gujarati proverb describes the people of Saurashtra the best: Pagri ma var eva pet me anta (They keep more in their stomach than in their pagri).
This makes for complicated politics. And in all political calculations, Saurashtra holds key to power in Gujarat.
But the mystery surrounding Saurashtra's silence has unnerved all political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party which considered the region as its bastion.
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In 1998 elections, the BJP swept the region with 52 assembly seats out of a total of 58 in the area.
However in the recent municipal elections, the Congress has bounced back with a vengeance virtually decimating the BJP all the cities.
BJP strategists are pinning all their hopes on the possibility of electorate's polarisation on communal lines in the post-Godhra political scenario.
"But this is like a drowning man holding on to a straw to save himself" said a BJP leader assigned the job of managing the campaign in Hindutva's stronghold.
In fact, the significance of Saurashtra can be understood fully only in the context of the region's dominance in the state's political economy.
This is largest agricultural tract which produces groundnut and cotton