PM ‘shifts’ campaign gear, won’t hold poll rally today

PATNA: PM Narendra Modi seems to have changed his campaign style as he won’t address an election rally on Friday, the day when Bihar will have second phase of polls for 32 assembly seats in six districts.
It would be the first time he would not be addressing an election campaign rally on the day of polling outside the constituencies which go to poll. The singular aspect of the PM’s election campaign style that emerged from his campaigning in the last year’s parliamentary elections was that he used to address an election rally on the day of poll.
Even in the first phase of Bihar assembly elections on October 12, he addressed two rallies, one each at Jehanabad and Bhabhua in Kaimur district, while polling was held in 49 assembly constituencies in 10 districts. It was much to the chagrin of JD(U) and RJD whose representatives complained before the Election Commission (EC) in Delhi.
Right now, it is not clear if he would address a rally on October 28, the day of the third phase poll. PM Modi is the NDA’s mascot and main campaigner.
Also, the NDA is seeking votes on the basis of performance of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.
Curiously, on Tuesday, there was a rumour that the PM would address a rally at Buxar on Friday. But the BJP media cell dismissed it as “fake news”.
“The election rallies of the PM are in consideration, but unless these are finally cleared, we cannot say anything on the matter,” said state BJP chief Mangal Pandey on Wednesday to TOI, and repeated it on Thursday at a press conference in the presence of state chiefs of the NDA constituents – LJP, RLSP and HAM-S.
The BJP-led NDA’s main worry is that the hype created from the PM’s pre-election ‘parivartan’ rallies and other election rallies he addressed from October 2 did not help in heavy people turnout result into votes in the first phase of poll.
Still, Mangal Pandey is sanguine that the NDA candidates would win 36 of the 49 seats (a little over 70%) due to high 57% polling. Pandey explained that the high polling percentage goes in favour of the opposition, not the ruling party or combination, due to overriding anti-incumbency factor.
“The PM has been speaking the same thing since July 25. Clearly, the law of diminishing returns has started working,” said economist and former Patna College principal Nawal Kishore Choudhary.
The heart of the matter is that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s repeated stand on the reservation policy and the BJP’s silence on its CM candidate made the going tough for the BJP-led NDA. The spillover from the Dadri incident in Uttar Pradesh and ‘beef politics’ also made the ground slippery for it.