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HomeOpinionPower Gallery‘Modi hai to namumkin hai’—how BJP plans to win Gujarat with this...

‘Modi hai to namumkin hai’—how BJP plans to win Gujarat with this new slogan

What this Bengal Congress leader told Rahul Gandhi on 2024 alliance.

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Modi hai to mumkin hai (If Modi is there, then it is possible). You might ask as to what’s new in this popular slogan that has been used on numerous occasions. But now, the BJP has given a new twist to it. The party has rephrased it as ‘Modi hai to namumkin hai (Impossible till Modi is there). And what’s impossible? There is a list of such items and BJP workers are hitting the campaign trail in Gujarat after memorising them all. The list of ‘impossibles’ consists of more than a dozen words— corruption, infiltration, bribery, freebies, despair, hopelessness, riots, terrorism, hoarding etc. The party workers are being duly trained on how to raise this slogan during the electoral campaign and canvassing.

‘Impossible’ is not a word in BJP’s dictionary

But not every impossible thing is effective. For example, if any BJP worker involved in electoral campaigning of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, even dares to describe any task as ‘difficult’, he/she will promptly be sent back to the pavilion (their home state). These tasks include securing 80 per cent votes in a Muslim-majority area; preventing a ticket-deprived worker from switching over to another party; ensuring the defeat of opposition stalwarts, etc.

BJP’s Ministry of Investigative Affairs

Rajasthan BJP’s plan to induce defections in the Congress party is still under wraps. But who will lead the ‘operation’ for the BJP has already been decided. Arjun Ram Meghwal has been appointed as the head of the ‘joining committee’. It will be Meghwal who will decide which leaders of the other party should be included into BJP’s fold. Seems the cabinet minister has been entrusted with the task to investigate and find out what a new joinee can bring to the table. In party corridors, leaders are even calling him as the ‘Minister of Investigative Affairs’, albeit in a lighter vein.

Why investigate a winning proposition?

In BJP, the ‘ten per cent vote’ is worrying some leaders. Recently, during a presentation, it was highlighted that if more than 55 per cent voting takes place in any assembly constituency in the Hindi belt, it should be assumed that 8-10 per cent of those are bogus—the vote which is cast by someone else or when the dominant social class doesn’t let people form weaker sections to vote in a fair manner. Now, the question is about how to treat this ailment? Responding to this, a senior party leader is learnt to have said that not all incurable things are harmful — ‘So what’s the need to get into the details, especially in the Hindi belt, where the party is winning despite (or due to) it?’

DBT: A voters’ PoV

Why is Ujjwala scheme such a big hit? A senior BJP leader posed this question during a training session of party workers. Everyone came up with different answers. But the answer of a former MLA from Bihar was considered to be the best. The former MLA said that when he visits an area for campaigning and informs people of the achievements of the BJP government — bridges, roads and marriage homes— the typical understanding from an average voter is that these works were built as part of public good, and not specifically for them. However, when it is said that I came to your home to attend a wedding, got your ration card prepared, got electricity delivered to your house etc., then people get satisfied. In a nutshell, the Ujjwala scheme is successful because it is not a community programme; instead targets an individual. So individual planning is the only guarantee of fetching votes.

Pro-establishment

Recently, Congress members cast their votes with great enthusiasm for the election of party president’s post. A party general secretary is learnt to have asked another one — ‘will you vote as per your conscience or on the basis of likes or dislikes? To which the latter said: “What’s the conscience’s voice? We buried our conscience the day Soniaji refused to become Prime Minister. It does not matter who becomes the party president; we are bound by the throne of Hastinapur (Gandhi family) only.

To ally or not

When Rahul Gandhi was touring the Karnataka-Kerala region during his Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Congress leader sought the opinion of his team member from West Bengal, Pooja Parjeeta Roychowdhury—if the party should form an alliance in 2024 or go solo? Pooja’s opinion was that the Congress should contest the elections on its own, and neither ally with the CPM nor go with the TMC. Rahul did not reveal his own opinion, but there is a buzz he is seriously thinking in this direction. Out of 117 Congress workers accompanying Rahul Gandhi in this Yatra, only two workers were invited from West Bengal, and Puja was one of them. She contested the election of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation this year and is also a member of All India Women’s Congress.

Bharat Agrawal is Executive Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group, and a columnist.

By special arrangement with Dainik Bhaskar and translated by Ram Lal Khanna from the original in Hindi and edited by Anurag.

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