BackElection campaign: Modi to stay away from religious places in UP, Bihar
As the BJP finalizes the venues of eight public rallies by Modi, party leaders say Modi will stay away from the religiously important towns of Ayodhya and Mathura
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New Delhi: The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning a major campaign blitz by its 2014 prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—two states that together account for 120 seats in Parliament.
But as the BJP finalizes the venues of eight public rallies by Modi—five in Uttar Pradesh and three in Bihar—party leaders maintained the Gujarat chief minister will stay away from the religiously important towns of Ayodhya and Mathura.
Party leaders, however, are planning a massive public meeting in Lucknow, the Lok Sabha seat of former BJP prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Although the party has retained the seat after Vajpayee’s retirement from politics, a section of the BJP leadership in Uttar Pradesh wants Modi to contest from a seat in the state, which sends 80 members to Parliament.
Lalji Tandon, the sitting BJP member of Parliament from Lucknow, said in a media briefing in December that Modi would be welcome to contest from his constituency.
“It is too early to talk about the possible Lok Sabha seat for Narendra Modi," said Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, vice-president of the BJP. “These five places (for the rallies) in Uttar Pradesh are being decided keeping in mind the Lok Sabha elections."
Naqvi said a public meeting in Agra on 21 November will kick off the Modi rallies that will be held through December and January. The general election is due by 31 May 2014.
Which constituency Modi chooses to stand from in 2014 has become the subject of speculation, amid a growing view that he should opt for a seat outside his native Gujarat in order to project his national appeal.
Apart from Agra, the other towns where Modi will speak in Uttar Pradesh are Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Bareilly.
Party leaders are aware of the religious sensitivities surrounding the campaign appearances by Modi in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where Muslims account for 18.4% and 16.5% of the population, respectively (2001 Census).
“There is no plan for Narendra Modi to visit Muzaffarnagar, but Agra and Bareilly are also part of western Uttar Pradesh," a BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh said, requesting anonymity. “Although Modi will not visit Mathura, Agra is just adjacent to the religious city."
The Hindu nationalist BJP, along with its ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, had led a campaign demanding the construction of temples in Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi at various disputed sites.
Although Modi’s political opponents have been asking him to comment on the recent communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar, he has refused to do so. Forty-three people were killed and more than 90 injured in the riots between Hindus and Muslims in Muzaffarnagar in August and September.
The BJP leaders are of the opinion that Modi’s public meetings in Jhansi and Kanpur in October were a major success and that there was a growing demand from the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit to bring him back to the state to boost its winning chances in 2014.
At the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won only 10 seats from Uttar Pradesh, the lowest in a contest with the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress.
In Bihar, too, the BJP leaders are demanding more public rallies by Modi despite the controversy over his last meeting in the state, when bomb explosions during the rally in Patna killed six people and injured more than 80 in October.
It is strategically important for the BJP’s star campaigner to be seen to be taking on his opponents in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar ahead of the Lok Sabha election. Both states are ruled by powerful parties that are opposed to the BJP nationally—the SP in Uttar Pradesh and the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) in Bihar.
Kumar, who objects to Modi’s pro-Hindutva ideology, has been personally targeted by Modi and the BJP after the Bihar chief minister earlier this year took his party out of a 17-year alliance with the BJP.
In Bihar, “three places are being discussed for Narendra Modi’s public meetings—Gaya, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur", said a BJP leader from the state aware of the development.
Bihar sends 40 Lok Sabha MPs and the BJP will try and replicate its 1999 general election success, when it won 23 seats in the state.
“The idea is to become the single largest party in Bihar and also to ask people to punish the Janata Dal (United) for breaking the alliance with the BJP," said the leader from Bihar. Both leaders declined to be named.
Political analysts following Modi’s public meetings say they detect a pattern in the choice of places for the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate’s rallies.
“While Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Gaya are important religious places, Agra, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Bareilly are all communally sensitive places," said Badri Narayan, an Allahabad-based political analyst. “There is a definite pattern in Modi’s movements in these two states."
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