Pundits and pollsters do not rate the Bharatiya Janata Party’s chances highly enough in the Uttar Pradesh sweepstakes.
Pundits and pollsters do not rate the Bharatiya Janata Party’s chances highly enough in the Uttar Pradesh sweepstakes. Even senior party insiders have expressed the considered opinion that it’s not worth putting in a serious effort to brighten its prospects.
But Nitin Gadkari, the RSS-anointed BJP president, believes that the party needs to put its best foot forward. He has been criss-crossing the northern state during the day, campaigning without exhaustion showing on his face. He has taken some decisions which have not gone down well with a section of his party colleagues. It is he who has taken the initiative in bringing back Uma Bharti and also Sanjay Joshi with whom the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has never got along.
A significant fall-out of these decisions has been the conspicuous absence of Hindutva icon Modi from the present campaign. Undeterred by the negative responses, Gadkari has also drafted the scam-tainted Babu Singh Kushwaha, ignoring dissenting voices. With the RSS backing him whole-heartedly, Gadkari can afford to take such risks.
“We have to fight elections and taking unpleasant decisions is part of the game. We cannot always be in a please-all mode. We can’t help it if some feathers are ruffled. Besides, I can make mistakes but my commitment to the party is total,” he said.
He introduces that same rough approach to his speech-making during the campaign. He knows that he is not as naturally gifted as greats like Atal Bihari Vajpayee who swayed the crowds with his mellifluous Hindi oratory.
Nor does he possess the political stature of a Lal Krishna Advani. So, he makes up for these deficiencies with punches that go down well with the man on the street.
“Mulayam Singhji is not bothered about Uttar Pradesh. His only concern is that somehow his son Akhilesh should become the chief minister. Soniaji is also not concerned about UP. She is desperate that Rahul should become the prime minister. As for Behenji, she is running a wholesale kirana shop. She is the owner and everybody else is her servant. It is only in the BJP where an ordinary worker like me can aspire to become the president,” he says at his well-attended meetings and the crowds lap it up.
Gadkari also departs from the average BJP leader’s style of using highbrow Hindi in his speeches and frequently uses Bollywood lyrics to drive home his point. “Recall that popular number - “Main to aayi huun UP-Bihar lootne”? This is the song that Lucknow’s Rani (alluding to Mayawati) wants to sing. But no one can loot Bihar now. We have established NDA rule in the state. And this time, it is UP’s turn. We shall throw her out and usher in Ram Rajya,” he says.
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