So, the Congress will not get a chance to implement its Ghar nu Ghar scheme. In August, the Congress announced a scheme called Ghar nu Ghar by which Gujarati women (and their families) would be eligible to avail themselves of low-cost housing should the Congress come to power in the forthcoming elections.

Women across the state besieged Congress party offices seeking beneficiary forms despite the fact that the scheme would only come into effect if Congress won the election.

The response to Congress's ploy caught Modi off guard when he was already feeling vulnerable on social-development issues -- especially since the Gujarat housing board, a state-run body, had not launched a single low-cost housing scheme in a decade.

Compelled to respond, Modi quietly secured special budgetary allocation of Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 16 billion) and launched a low-cost housing scheme in which below-poverty-line households would receive Rs 45,000 towards the cost of new home construction.#Live-gujarat-results