Why Rajnath Singh emerged as No. 3 after Modi & Shah for BJP’s election campaign

As home minister, Rajnath Singh helped the BJP keep the focus on national security and nationalism while his Hindi proficiency was an asset in the heartland.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh | Praveen Jain | ThePrint

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has emerged as the most sought-after member of the Modi cabinet in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, indicating the premium that the BJP has laid on national security in the run-up to the polls.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi, around whom the party’s campaign is pivoted, and BJP president Amit Shah, Singh has addressed the largest number of rallies —109 — outside Lucknow, his parliamentary constituency.

With the BJP seeking to politically capitalise on Balakot air strikes, even Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was deputed to campaign in some constituencies in Uttar Pradesh despite her lack of proficiency in Hindi. And while union minister Nitin Gadkari, also a former BJP president like Singh, addressed 75 rallies, most of them were in Maharashtra.

It was Singh, however, who was picked up by Modi to supplement his efforts to showcase India’s emergence as a “strong nation” during his regime.

The prominent campaigner

The home minister addressed over 30 rallies in Uttar Pradesh, 16 in Bihar and at least 10 each in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.

“Rajnath Singh is the only union minister to cross the three-digit mark in terms of addressing election rallies,” said a BJP leader.

Most of the union ministers found few takers among BJP candidates who either wanted Modi to hold rallies in their constituencies or themselves seek votes in his name, according to BJP sources.

Singh has been the exception.

“As a leader, Rajnath Singh is seen as being grounded and with experience of mass politics and grassroots connect. He is also an effective orator,” said the BJP leader quoted above. “He has an excellent grip over the Hindi language, which makes him even more useful in the heartland, and this is something even the PM appreciates immensely,” the leader added.

“As home minister, Singh has worked successfully to root out the Naxal problem and has done so effectively. Whatever attacks are happening now are in desperation because they have been hit very hard,” he said. “Earlier, they used to ambush and attack, now they are doing it stealthily by laying IEDs. This is in itself an indication.”

Another BJP leader claimed that Singh, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, was used for campaigning in rural areas because he understands agriculture and farmers’ issues.

“He was earlier the agriculture minister,” the second leader said. “He is the best person to convey and communicate our narrative to farmers and he has successfully done that.”

National security, the focus of Singh’s campaign

In most of his rallies, Singh has been focusing on national security and how the BJP government has a zero-tolerance policy against terrorism.

He has also made sure to emphasise that the ‘zero-tolerance policy’ is a trademark of the Modi government. At a rally in Haryana’s Gurgaon on 8 May, Singh attacked the Congress for claiming that there had been at least six surgical strikes during the UPA rule.

Singh said that an RTI had revealed that the first such operation was carried out in 2016, during Modi’s term. “The Congress said that they also did surgical strikes. Who stopped you from announcing these?” he asked. “Do you feel ashamed of praising the armed forces. Why you did not tell this to the people of India. Is the government not answerable?”

In many of his rallies, Singh has also been pointing out how after the Pulwama attack, on 14 February, the government took a daring decision of carrying out the air strike on Balakot in Pakistan.

“We all know what Pakistan did in Pulwama,” he said at the rally in Gurgaon. “The prime minister held a meeting immediately after the incident, took a decision and gave relevant orders following which you saw our air force striking terrorists deep into Pakistani territory,” Singh added.

“Being the home minister of the country, I want to say the intelligence department is under me only,” he added. “I want to assure you that whatever operation happened, it was based on credible intelligence input.”