(This story originally appeared in on Jul 6, 2017)

NEW DELHI: A divided Congress and good monsoons are likely to help BJP reap a rich electoral harvest in Gujarat in the forthcoming elections as the saffron party is not faced with a formidable opposition and despite some resentment faces virtually no anti-incumbency.BJP chief Amit Shah is not taking the elections in his home state lightly and will be making two trips in the next 10 days to meet party cadre. Though PM Narendra Modi will be the face of the party and the ruling party does not have much to worry, it is a matter of prestige to keep the 2012 tally of 115 seats in the 182-member Assembly intact.Shah has given a call to increase the BJP strength in the Assembly to 150. Party leaders maintain this may be a tall order but the infighting in Congress will help them. There is an on-going tussle between Congress leaders Bharat Sinh Solanki and Shanker Sinh Vaghela for supremacy within the state unit.The party has also not cleared the candidature of senior leader Ahmed Patel for the next Rajya Sabha term.Patel completes his term in August this year. Sources said Vaghela wants to be declared the CM candidate in lieu of ensuring that Patel is elected without any hiccups.Congress has only 61 seats in the present Assembly and Patel needs 44 votes for his election. He has been spending a lot of time in the state to set things in order.Both Vaghela and Solanki are Kshatriya leaders, which forms the core vote bank of the Congress. A fight over ticket distribution will make matters worse in the coming days, sources said.Though Rahul Gandhi has reportedly not given heed to Vaghela's request for a meeting in the past few days, the Congress V-P has all along kept both him and Solanki guessing on whom he backs.Congress traditionally has banked on the support of KHAM- Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim votes. BJP has been trying to wean away the Dalits and to some extent the tribal votes from the grand old party.Shah has held two meetings with BJP Panna Pramukhs- the party members incharge of voters per page on the voters list. Having covered Saurashtra and Central Gujarat in May and June, Shah will visit the state on July 7 and again on July 11 to address Panna Pramukhs from South and North Gujarat.While shortage of water is always a big issue in Gujarat and some antagonism was building up against BJP, a good monsoon has come to its rescue.