Has Prime Minister Narendra Modi already given up on Yogi? Is he now only concerned about his own fate and is wisely taking all measures, like nurturing his own constituency Varanasi. Modi’s mega roadshow in Varanasi appears to say it all. Keeping alive ‘Modi Magic’ at Shiv Nagri and ensuring that it lasts till the 2024 Lok Sabha elections appears to be his top priority.
Varanasi is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, He has visited it several times before, and he has every right to visit it whenever he deems fit. But camping there for two full days in the last leg of the UP assembly polls is raising a lot of questions. To his opponents, it appears to be the last throes of agony, for the Yogi’s regime. Considering the reports of the heavy damage faced by the saffron party in the six phases in UP it seems the Central BJP leadership is trying to retrieve the situation and do some damage control for the ‘bulldozer sarkar’.
But there is yet another segment of opponents who are convinced that Modi is not expecting much from the Yogi regime strategies and through this Kaashi road trip, Modi is ground-testing waters in his home constituency for the Lok Sabah elections of 2024. Though Modi is drawing a lot of flak for leaving aside his prime ministerial duties, especially in view of the difficult global situation and staying put in Varanasi for full two days. He is being bombarded by his critics for using all his energy on these assembly elections when he should be looking after more serious affairs facing the country, including foreign relations. They are convinced, his undiluted involvement is not to lend a shoulder to Yogi during his struggle but is centered on saving his own boat from sinking in 2024 general polls.
Modi’s roadshow in Varanasi
The roadshow in Varanasi was momentous. Standing atop in his roof open vehicle with two commandos stoically behind him, Modi kick-started the three-hour mega roadshow on the three km road stretch on Friday. The route selection was the same as in 2014 when he rode amidst the people after his victory in the Lok Sabah polls. This time he covered three assembly segments of Cantonment, Varanasi North and Varanasi South. Right at the beginning of his trip, Modi garlanded Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s statue at Maldahiya crossing. The mammoth crowd enthusiastically cheered, showered rose petals on the PM, chanting Har har Mahadev and Har Har Modi. In this Modi hysteria, there was hardly any place for Yogi cheering.
Modi responded by waving back at the crowd and acknowledging their greetings with folded hands and a smile.
At the grand finale, Modi religiously offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath temple as media, and TV cameras jostled with each other to capture the best angles. Besides the puja rituals, Modi managed a lot of media hype when he took the giant Shiv drum and shook it ritualistically. The Prime minister ended his show by garlanding Madan Mohan Malviya’s statue at Lanka Chowk.
No politician knows better than Modi how to play to the gallery. Previous to the roadshow he donned the role of a ‘local’ by joining in people’s mundane activities, which included sipping tea, playing musical instruments, shaking hands with the commoners.
PM”s visit to railway station
Out of these activities, the most telling was his visit to the railway station. Maybe he did not want people to forget his tea boy image who sold tea at the railway platforms for a living. Through this image, Modi automatically bonded with the youngmen who did menial tasks for survival. In December last year too, Modi and Yogi had together made a surprise visit to the Railways station.
It is not a hidden fact that Modi likes his personality projection and he has always painted a larger than life image of himself. Nobody seems to believe more in the slogan “Modi hain to Mumkin Hain” than Modi himself. Recently an Indian Vlogger mentioned in his Vlog that visiting the Indian Pavillion at Expo Dubai, he found that the Indian pavilion was the only one out of the hundreds of global pavilions that gave more space to the country’s Prime minister than the Indian goods.
Maybe the BJP calls this nationalism.
| Posted by Sameer Khan | 
