The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is relying on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for the party’s fortune in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is relying on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for the party’s fortune in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.
However, party workers now fear that Modi’s comparison of Gujarat’s superior development vis-à-vis Maharashtra’s lackadaisical progress over the last few years might go against the party.
While Modi’s aim is to try and show how badly the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance has performed in the state compared to the BJP’s better showing in neighbouring Gujarat, party workers in the state fear that the average Maharashtrian voter won’t take too kindly to his state being held up in poor light.
Since he was appointed the BJP’s in-charge for polls in Maharashtra, Modi has held three rallies so far at Gondiya near Nagpur, Pimpalgaon Baswant near Pune, and at Thane. In all these rallies, Modi compared Maharashtra with Gujarat.
BJP workers now fear that Modi’s hosannas about Gujarat sound terribly condescending towards Maharashtra. “Modi says that Maharashtra’s farmers are committing suicides while Gujrat’s farmers are moving towards prosperity.
He says Maharashtra’s milk production has come down while Gujrat’s milk producers export their milk to Singapore. His intension is to show how the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra has failed on various fronts. But the audiences could not connect with his statements,” lamented a BJP official, adding, “The audience do not like Modi’s criticism about the state’s lack of development.”
A senior BJP official admitted that he had received adverse feedback from the party workers about Modi’s rallies. “I will send a message to the seniors in the party urging Modi not to compare Maharashtra and Gujarat,” he said.
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