‘Modi-fication’ of UP puts PM’s image on the line

Lucknow: Rarely before has a Prime Minister campaigned so vigorously in an Assembly election as Narendra Modi has done in Uttar Pradesh.

The state election has turned into a Modi-versus-the-rest war. Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are now worried over the “extreme Modi-fication” of the polls.

“The Prime Minister’s prestige is now directly linked to the results, and if we fail to make it to the halfway mark, Modi’s image will take a beating,” said a BJP leader who did not want to be named.

“We should have avoided his over-involvement in the Assembly elections, but then it is the decision of the party leadership,” the leader said Thursday, just before polling in the fourth phase began.

Party strategists, in the midst of the campaign, are realising their “mistake”.

“The BJP has to sweep two-thirds majority to justify Modi’s frequent presence in the campaign. We should get results similar to the Lok Sabha elections, or else the outcome will be seen as a mark of Modi’s diminishing popularity,” a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionary said in Lucknow.

“The campaign in Uttar Pradesh has already moved away from anti-incumbency and failures of the Akhilesh (Yadav) government, which is a dangerous signal for us,” the RSS member said.

Usually, a Prime Minister in the past addressed at least one rally in every phase of polling. But Mr Modi has been carpet-bombing the electoral map in UP.

In the past 19 days, he has addressed 14 rallies in Meerut, Aligarh, Ghazia-bad, Badaun, Lakhimpur, Kannauj, Hardoi, Bara-banki, Fatehpur, Kausham-bhi, Orai, Phulpur, Bahraich and Basti.  He is likely to address six more rallies before elections end March 8.

Mr Modi had also addressed six rallies in UP during the “parivartan yatras” that began in October last year and ended in Lucknow on January 2.

A former state BJP president said the party has put the Prime Minister at par with state-level leaders. 

“Just look at the level of campaigning. This would not have happened if the Prime Minister had not campaigned so frequently, and allowed state-level (leaders) take over on a daily basis,” he said.

“Unlike other parties, there is no dearth of campaigners in BJP. We should have used them in UP.”

Political observers say the intensive campaigning by Mr Modi has put him directly in the firing line of state leaders of rival parties.

“Since Mr Modi is campaigning almost everyday, state-level leaders of rival parties are directing their barbs at him,” a political analyst said.

“This is an unpleasant development. The Prime Minister should be above this,” the analyst said.