The Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009 is essentially the brainwave of the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had then argued that it would economise the process of local self government elections besides creating the template for exploring similar avenues for a national exercise. The Bill was first tabled in the State Assembly in December 2009. Interestingly, Modi was missing both when the Bill was being debated and later when it was being voted upon. However, he was most vocal, lashing out against the then governor Kamala Beniwal, for what he called playing partisan politics (UPA was in power at the centre). The governor, on her part, had sent the Bill back for the government’s re-consideration. As Modi was wont to do, he re-introduced the Bill in the State Assembly in 2010, milked it for political mileage for over an year, and then used his brute majority to get it passed on December 28, 2011. Subsequently, it lay with the governor until Modi assumed charge as Prime Minister, ignominiously shunted out Beniwal, and the new Governor cleared it last month.