En route to Lucknow, BJP seeks a boost from its civic poll wins

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invocation of Lord Shiva’s “third eye” on Mahashivratri is part of the imagery the BJP will use to market its success in the recent civic polls and create a sense of the inevitability of its victory in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP’s electoral triumphs will also be projected as a reflection of the common man’s approval of demonetisation.

To this end, the PM used religious symbolism and imagery and asserted that the poor in India were able to see through the false propaganda around demonetisation and voted overwhelmingly for the BJP in civic body elections in Maharashtra and Odisha. He also sought to turn on its head the Congress’ criticism of him running a “pro-rich” and “anti-poor” government by citing the BJP’s victory in some of the poorest parts of Odisha and dubbed the opponents of demonetisation as people “living in air-conditioned rooms”.

“People sitting in air-conditioned rooms in Delhi cannot comprehend the intensity of the storm blowing outside. They underestimate the common man’s intelligence, his faith in democracy even if he has never been to a school or doesn’t read newspapers and watch television. Like the Lord Shiva’s third eye, they have a clear instinct for what is right or wrong,” said the PM at an election rally in Gonda, UP.

“Be it civic body polls in Odisha, Maharashtra, Chandigarh or panchayat polls in Gujarat, in three months wherever there were polls, whether BJP had any presence or not, people used their third eye and ensured its victory,” he added.

As the election moves into its final three phases in UP, this is the line the BJP will consistently use to create a “good-versus-evil” and “clean-versus-corrupt” narrative in UP. The subliminal thrust will be that common and poor people everywhere have given their stamp of approval to demonetisation. To this end, the BJP will celebrate February 25 as “Vijay Diwas” across the country. In every district headquarters of the BJP, celebrations will mark the party’s recent electoral successes and project its “pro-poor” credentials.

For the purpose, two Union Ministers from Odisha – Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram – were fielded at the BJP headquarters to assert that “On November 8 (the day the PM announced demonetisation), a momentum was given to the pro-poor policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since then, a number of states have given their verdict on demonetisation,” said Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Citing the BJP’s recent electoral successes, Pradhan said the biggest reflection of how the poor have overwhelmingly supported the PM was seen in Odisha, which houses the “KBK (Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) region” that has symbolised poverty and backwardness over the years. Pradhan focused on the BJP’s success in Zila Parishads in the region and the Congress’ dismal performance to drive home the point that Rahul Gandhi’s campaign against Modi running a “suit-boot ki sarkar ” had come a cropper.

“Rahul Gandhi went to Kalahandi in 2008 and told people he was ‘their soldier’. The people elected Bhakt Charan Das, a Congressman, as their MP. They ran a government till 2014. And now, the Congress has been wiped out from there. The champions of the poor have been driven out by the people. They have embraced the BJP,” said Dharmendra Pradhan, citing Zila Parishad election results in Kalahandi district, where the BJP won 33 of the 36 seats.