By Sushil Kutty
“No power on earth can bring back Article 370,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi roared in Jammu & Kashmir, apparently having regained some of his vitality after the “half defeat” on June 4. We hope to hear more of his return to form after he returns from the United States. If he meets former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, newshounds will go to town. In Jammu & Kashmir, the PM spoke his mind addressing a rally in Katra.
But whether he spoke enough for the BJP to taste victory in J&K is a question mark. The Prime Minister isn’t his old-self of before the Lok Sabha elections 2024. And ahead of him are a bunch of elections, including the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections. Haryana borders Delhi and elections in Haryana reverberate in Delhi. Faridabad and Gurugram are practically ‘Delhi’. The two Haryana satellite towns are part of NCR.
The Haryana assembly elections will be held on October 5, which is not round the corner, a couple of corners is more like it. And Prime Minister Narendra Modi is gearing up for campaigning in Haryana. Modi will be in Haryana for the ‘Mera Booth Sabse Mazboot’ programme, meeting BJP workers, volunteers and supporters.
The BJP faces double anti-incumbency in what is called “Jatland”. The Jat community is supposedly cross with the BJP and the BJP will be banking on other communities to step over the double anti-incumbency hump. This time there is also AAP to download a surprise avalanche on the BJP and Congress like it did in the Punjab polls a couple of years ago. Along with Delhi, Haryana also borders Punjab, sharing Chandigarh for political capital!
Modi will interact with BJP workers on September 26 “through” the NAMO app. People can react with an “all the best” on Musk’s X. Elon Musk and Prime Minister Modi are friends. Maybe Modi will get a chance to hug Musk. But Modi’s close contact with the Haryana electorate is more important for the BJP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Haryana voters to come up with questions and suggestions relevant to the Haryana elections. Modi has changed, he is no longer the arrogant “abki baar 400 paar”. If Lok Sabha elections 2024 did anything good for the BJP, it brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his humble knees. Miracles do happen.
The interactive ‘Mera Booth Sabse Mazboot’ session will be the only Modi brag in Haryana. Modi doesn’t talk of ‘I, Me, Myself’ anymore. He gives credit to the BJP rank and file not to “Ek Akela” alone. “Our workers, volunteers and supporters have pledged to make the lotus bloom at every booth in the Haryana assembly elections,” Modi posted on X.
“We will have the privilege of interacting with them in the programme ‘Mera Booth Sabse Mazboot’ on September 26 at around 12.30 pm through the Namo app. Do send your questions and suggestions.” Whoever was it who called Narendra Modi arrogant? Modi goes to ‘Mera Booth Sabse Mazboot’ programme knowing that special measures have been taken to increase voting percentage.
But, unlike Gujarat, Haryana is agricultural as well as martial to the core, both “kisan as well as jawan!” The BJP manifesto speaks of MSP for farmers, and jobs for “Agniveers” who have completed their 4-year stints even as the Congress vowed and wooed Haryana women voters with promises of welfare schemes and free electricity.
The AAP doesn’t have to announce freebies; the AAP’s Delhi model is a decade old and Haryana’s “Aam Aadmi” is not a different species from the Delhi variant. The Haryana male might vote AAP for the inebriation that AAP brings to the dinner table. To paraphrase the late Mulayam Singh Yadav, “tippler toh tippler hi hota hai, Dilli ho ya Haryana!”
The Congress and AAP are INDI-Alliance partners, but the alliance does not extend to the Haryana elections. With Kejriwal out on bail, there is no knowing what the AAP will accomplish in the land of liquor vends. Liquor vends in Faridabad and Gurugram have been saviour for Delhi’s tipplers from time immemorial. And there is always enduring hope in Arvind Kejriwal to serve the tried and thirsty!
Modi will be facing Kejriwal in the election arena after a long time. If Modi loses to the Congress, it will be partly because of Arvind Kejriwal and if Modi loses to the AAP, it will again be because of Arvind Kejriwal. No matter what, Modi with the double anti-incumbency is in for a double whammy! (IPA Service)