In the final leg of the 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi dramatically announced in a rally, “Yeh dil maange more”. It was a quintessential Modi soundbite: the BJP’s internal polls had captured a surge but the party leadership of Modi and his lieutenant, Amit Shah, were determined to push beyond “mission 272” towards a triple hundred. The rest, as they say, is history.
Twenty two months later, the 2017 assembly elections have shown that the BJP’s appetite is clearly undiminished. When Modi undertook a three-day intensive roadshow-cum-rally programme in his ‘adopted’ home of Varanasi, it was seen by some as a sign of desperation. More than one analyst predicted that the Modi juggernaut was being halted in the complex caste and community matrix of Uttar Pradesh. As it turns out, the BJP has swept the city and the entire eastern UP belt which went to the polls in the seventh and last phase. What was seen as desperation is perhaps a reflection of a trademark Modi-Shah campaign mantra: when ahead, simply go for the jugular.
For full coverage on UP election, click here
It is this constant hunger and desire for success that separates Modi from star politicians before him. Indira Gandhi was just as popular and authoritarian but maybe less driven (she actually had interests beyond politics!). The BJP’s original Lucknow poster boy, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was charismatic and arguably a much finer public speaker; but he clearly lacked the ruthlessness that is part of the Modi persona. The Atal-Advani era was a gentler one and the BJP was still an exclusivist party struggling to shed its Brahmin-Bania upper caste image. The Ram Mandir movement aided the party’s political expansion, especially in UP, but it was never able to fully accommodate the aspirations of a new India because its leadership was still haunted by the dominance of the Congress–Nehruvian system.View more:-Bulk Sms Service provider
Source:-Hindustantimes
Twenty two months later, the 2017 assembly elections have shown that the BJP’s appetite is clearly undiminished. When Modi undertook a three-day intensive roadshow-cum-rally programme in his ‘adopted’ home of Varanasi, it was seen by some as a sign of desperation. More than one analyst predicted that the Modi juggernaut was being halted in the complex caste and community matrix of Uttar Pradesh. As it turns out, the BJP has swept the city and the entire eastern UP belt which went to the polls in the seventh and last phase. What was seen as desperation is perhaps a reflection of a trademark Modi-Shah campaign mantra: when ahead, simply go for the jugular.
For full coverage on UP election, click here
It is this constant hunger and desire for success that separates Modi from star politicians before him. Indira Gandhi was just as popular and authoritarian but maybe less driven (she actually had interests beyond politics!). The BJP’s original Lucknow poster boy, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was charismatic and arguably a much finer public speaker; but he clearly lacked the ruthlessness that is part of the Modi persona. The Atal-Advani era was a gentler one and the BJP was still an exclusivist party struggling to shed its Brahmin-Bania upper caste image. The Ram Mandir movement aided the party’s political expansion, especially in UP, but it was never able to fully accommodate the aspirations of a new India because its leadership was still haunted by the dominance of the Congress–Nehruvian system.View more:-Bulk Sms Service provider
Source:-Hindustantimes
