Busting many Myths: BJP’s Mahakumbh at Bhopal

 

Just a day after BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s anointment, there were speculations whether veteran leader Lalkrishna Advani will share the stage with him in Bhopal for the party’s big rally (read). It took Advani only a day to come out in public and rubbish the reports of fallout with Modi doing rounds in media. He showered him with praises at a function in Chhatisgarh (read).

 

The whole party did a kind of balancing act yesterday which was commendable. Not only they were able to project Modi as a leader who was able to bring “Ram Rajya” to the country, they were also able to project Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as an able leader despite Modi’s presence. It was a perfect answer to the critics of the party which was hounding BJP for diminishing the role of CMs in the states ruled by them and allies.

 

Not only veteran Advani publicly laughed off reports of fallout, he gave equal time to Modi and Chouhan praising them for their good work. Same was the case with party president Rajnath Singh, senior leader Sushma Swaraj and former MP CM Uma Bharti. All the CMs of BJP-NDA ruled states, in fact, were presented as equals. This undoubtedly figured in the speeches of Chouhan and Modi too. 

 

Moreover, it sent a message accross their own cadres and allies that they are fit for sticking together in the case BJP forms the government in next general elections.

 

The Congress leaders will have to chew their words now, for Modi showed the significant characteristics of an inclusive leader. Unlike Jairam Ramesh’s rhetoric that he was full of “I-Me-Myself” and Digvijay Singh’s allegations that Modi cannot “change his spots”, Modi took a backseat and let other takes the centre stage.

 

The undulating praises for Chouhan which came from Modi, a ‘chhota sa karyakarta” in his own words, showed his critics exit at the very first instance. “When I used to work for the Sangathan I have visited all the constituencies.  Almost 30 years back, I had come to Madhya Pradesh just to listen to Shivraj Chouhan. He echoed the philosophies of our founder and helped us understand them. Twenty five years later, when he came to power, I am happy to see that he has done everything he wanted to do for the poor in the state,” he said.

 

And he just did not stop there. Clearing the air which said Modi’s anointment will harm state leaders in upcoming assembly polls because of his larger than life figure, he used his own position as an advantage for them. He told the mesmerised audience that he had no doubts about Chouhan winning the assembly elections. He even went on doing a bit of campaigning for the MP CM. “The Congress is now being forced to talk about inclusive growth because Shivraj Chouhan has forced the Centre to take up the issue. Chouhan has shown the Centre what the inclusive growth is. And the Congress is relentlessly trying to scuttle the Sardar Sarovar Dam project in Gujarat – because MP will get 800 MW of free electricity and the Congress doesn’t want the state to prosper anymore,” he said.

 

Talking about Chouhan, because he was present at the function, was not his only agenda for sure. Modi praised Chhatisgarh CM Raman Singh and even tried to woo the allies by taking them in his poll campaign narrative.  He said that in the past five years, the states which have done extremely well in terms of development are states which have BJP governments and states which are run by BJP’s friends and allies. Now how this will assuage fuming allies (read Nitish Kumar, who recently had a meeting with Advani on the sidelines of NIC meeting) is a matter to see.