Budhni, Madhya Pradesh: As he makes the rounds of villages in Budhni assembly constituency in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Vikram Mastal — who played ‘Hanuman’ in the 2008-09 TV adaptation of the Ramayana — greets voters with folded hands and chants of “Jai Siya Ram, Jai Hanuman”. The Congress has pitted the actor against four-time Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the elections scheduled for 17 November.
Promising to give a tough fight to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s tallest leader in the state, Mastal, who calls himself a native of Budhni in Sehore district, says this is the first time a local has been fielded against Chouhan. Wearing a white kurta with an orange scarf around his neck, he adds that the BJP doesn’t have a “patent” on Shri Ram.
Religious songs play in the background as he proceeds on the campaign trail, with the announcer emphasising the character Mastal portrayed in the television adaptation of the Hindu epic.
Mastal himself refers to the “public” as “Ram” and says he wants to serve them as their “Hanuman”.
“Jo Ram ko maante hai Ram unke hai. Ram ke upar BJP ka patent nahi hai. Agar itne Ram ko maane waale hai toh gau mata road par hai, unka apmaan karte hai toh aapko Ram nahi dikhte?”
(Whoever believes in Ram, he belongs to them. The BJP doesn’t have a patent on Ram. If there are so many believers of Ram, don’t they see him when they see cows roaming the streets?)
“It is a very good thing that a Ram temple is being constructed (in Ayodhya); no one has any issue with that. But you (BJP) are not making Ram. Ram has been in existence since time immemorial. Has Ram ji given you any certificate? This entire country believes in Ram,” he tells ThePrint.
The BJP has made the construction of the Ram temple a key poll issue in Madhya Pradesh. Posters reading ‘Bhavya Ram Mandir ban kar ho raha taiyaar, phir iss baar BJP sarkar’ (magnificent Ram temple is being readied, vote again for a BJP government) are visible across the state.
Addressing a public meeting in Chhindwara on 29 October, during his three-day visit to the state, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that MP would celebrate Diwali thrice in the coming months: on the day of the festival itself, on the day results to the assembly polls are declared, and on 22 January next year — when the temple in Ayodhya is inaugurated.
Shah had also accused past Congress governments at the Centre of delaying and halting the construction of the Ram temple, which he said became a reality owing to the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.
“Even today, a Congress candidate has been forced to start his campaign with Jai Siya Ram! Unlike the Congress, we have full faith in Shri Ram and the construction of the Ram Mandir is proof of it. Shivraj Singh Chouhan will once again win the seat with a huge majority,” says Hitesh Bajpai, a spokesperson of the Madhya Pradesh BJP.
Chhindwara, where Shah made the remark about three Diwalis, is seen as the stronghold of Congress leader and former chief minister Kamal Nath, who wears his identity as a Hanuman devotee on his sleeve and built a temple dedicated to the Hindu god, with a 101-feet-statue of the deity in Simariya village, Chhindwara.
And it was Nath who inducted Mastal into the Congress on 4 July this year.
When his ticket was announced, the Congress also released a 38-second video of Mastal as ‘Hanuman’, standing before Lord Ram, seeking further instructions after registering a victory in Karnataka, where the party secured a majority. The video goes on to show Lord Ram instructing Hanuman to ensure “bhakt Kamal Nath” is victorious in Madhya Pradesh.
Hitting out at CM Shivraj, Mastal alleges, “Shivraj ji is the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and in his own constituency, there has been no development. There is no medical college in this constituency and even after 20 years, a mere announcement [of a medical college] has been made by Chouhan ji. There is no education hub, no engineering or nursing college. If someone falls sick, the person has to travel for two hours to Bhopal to get treatment. Is this what we call development.”
Locals who were not able to get their problems resolved despite Budhni being a high-profile constituency are now coming out in droves to extend support, he claims.
“I will take my last breath here. I’m a kisan putra (son of a farmer). I was doing social service but not marketing; these BJP people are good at marketing themselves without doing any work.”
Asked whether he got the ticket from the Congress solely because he played the role of Hanuman, Mastal tells ThePrint that he is a “local” and has been talking about “the youngsters and the farmers”.
“I come from a farming family. It was my good fortune to play the role of Hanuman. I was born on a Tuesday and entered politics on a Tuesday. It is by the grace of Hanuman ji and he will take care of everything. The public is Ram for me and I want to serve them as their Hanuman.”
“The BJP uses religion in politics. We work only for the public. The Congress’s only aim is to serve. I’m going among the public. Looking at the condition of Budhni today — youngsters are troubled, and so are women and farmers — I feel this time the public is very angry. The truth alone is going to win. Ram belongs to everyone, no one has a certificate for Ram,” he adds.
While criticising it for using ‘soft-Hindutva’ as a poll plant in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the elections, the BJP has also accused the Congress of garnering votes in the name of ‘Bajrang Bali’ ever since the Congress’s victory in the Karnataka assembly elections earlier this year.
Following outrage over the Congress promise to ban pro-Hindutva outfits like the Bajrang Dal in its Karnataka election manifesto, the party had promised to construct and renovate Hanuman temples in the state. Party workers in Hanuman costumes had taken part in celebrations after the party emerged victor.
In Budhni, the BJP expresses confidence that there will be no such poll upset.
Shivraj Singh Chauhan has been winning from Budhni continuously since 2006.
“This is a BJP stronghold and Shivraj ji has been winning from this seat for years now. Although Congress has also won this seat at times, the seat has been a BJP stronghold for long,” says a senior state BJP leader who did not want to be named.
The leader adds that fielding Mastal from this seat may have garnered the Congress headlines but is unlikely to translate into votes. “Everyone knows what the outcome (of this contest) will be,” he tells ThePrint.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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