Going by BJP’s frantic efforts to get Delhi’s voters to stand up and take notice of their prime ministerial candidate, it appears that the party has pinned all its hopes of a resurrection on the Modi factor.
The buzz and the hype are firmly in place. And if BJP’s plans of beaming Modi from 100 flat-screen TVs placed at markets across the city as he addresses a rally from West Delhi should succeed, residents out shopping on Sunday afternoon will find themselves listening to BJP’s chosen one.
What can Delhi voters expect to hear from Modi? Can he swing Delhi in BJP’s favour despite the leadership crisis the state unit is facing?
“His rally could definitely be a huge boost for the BJP in the state assembly elections. It is up to the local leadership to utilise this. At the moment, the local BJP unit is in complete disarray. They are facing a leadership crisis that they’ve not been able to resolve in the last five years. The (Delhi) BJP has no leader that can match Sheila Dikshit and Arvind Kejriwal. Modi has a lot to compensate for. I don’t know to what extent he will be able to do that,” says Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, journalist and author of the recently published biography Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
While Modi’s rally will kick-start BJP’s election campaign in the state, the likelihood of PM aspirant Modi directly taking on the state government and its chief minister or the emerging threat from the Aam Admi Party and its belligerent leader seems slim.
“I don’t think he will target Sheila Dikshit personally. He will personally target the central leadership. He will sharpen his attack on them….It also has to be seen how he will tackle the Aam Admi Party. He hasn’t spoken about it so far. It will be interesting to see what he does. My gut feeling is that he will ignore them.”
He adds, “From what I understand of Modi’s psyche is that he needs to target only one enemy. He doesn’t believe in taking on multiple enemies. The enemy has to be the biggest one, and that is the Family.”
Speaking about issues that Modi is likely to harp on in his address on Sunday, Mukhopadhyay says, “He will continue along the same lines — attacking the centre and the Congress, ridding the country of Congress rule. And now there’s been an attack in Jammu & Kashmir, there will be a major thrust on this.”
“He is also going to take a moralistic position on this ordinance for quashing the Supreme Court order disqualifying MPs and MLAs who are convicted. The BJP has taken a lead on that and I expect the BJP to also take a lead in endorsing the Right to Reject judgment by the Supreme Court. He will take on issues that will put him and the BJP on a moral high-ground at a time when the Congress is painted as being an immoral, corrupt and inefficient regime. As far Modi and is his own constituency is concerned, he is going from strength to strength,” says Mukhopadhyay.
The Sunday rally is expected to have, as Modi’s rallies in the past have shown, its share of theatrics and audio-visual gimmicks.
Preparations at the venue, to quote a report from the Indian Express, include “an innovative stage, state-of-the-art sound system, TV studios at the rally ground, 20 LED screens on the ground, hoardings, countdown clocks…”.
With the BJP aiming for a 2 lakh plus strong crowd, party workers are going all out to make sure the turn-out is massive.
Invitations to what state BJP leadership is describing as a “historic event” have been sent out to US ambassador Nancy Powell and diplomats from “100 countries” for a first-hand Modi experience.
“Modi is making it obvious that he is the PM-in-waiting. I think it is also a question of him wanting to improve his international image. There is definitely an attempt by the diplomatic community to try and understand him. And they are not trying to understand him through the eyes of the Indian media,” says Mukopadhyay.
The likely absence of BJP’s senior leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj will have no affect the public perception, says Mukhopadhyay. “As far as voters of the BJP are concerned, Advani and Sushma are passé. In any case, the vote catching capability of Sushma Swaraj was never very high and Advani’s has declined because of the shift of the demographic character of India.”
On whether being on tour addressing rally after rally in different states was something that suited Modi very well, his biographer says, “I don’t know how long he will be able to maintain this pace. He also has to concentrate on running Gujarat. Otherwise, it will be bad for him. Heavy rains in Gujarat have affected life in a bad way and here is a chief minister who is gallivanting all over the country. The Congress could well mount a campaign against him.”
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