In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the political parties in India are putting their best foot forward, and expectedly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is taking the lead. A day after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav took a ‘family’ jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP recapitulated its 2019 Lok Sabha strategy to turn Lalu Prasad Yadav’s attack on its head.
“This Narendra Modi is attacking ‘parivaarvaad’ these days. First, you should tell why you do not have any children or family. For the people with more children, he (PM Modi) says that it is dynasty politics. You don’t have a family…You are not even a Hindu. Every Hindu tonsures their head to mourn their mother’s death. Answer why did not you get your hair and beard removed…,” Lalu Prasad Yadav said on Sunday.
Déjà vu moment for INDIA alliance
During the high-intensity campaign before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi attacked the PM Modi-led NDA-I government on various issues including crony capitalism and irregularities in the Rafale aircraft deal.
In a daring move, Rahul Gandhi launched a “chowkidar chor hai” slogan against Prime Minister Modi and his government.
The BJP knew better than to respond aggressively against the slogan and smashed what they call a “masterstroke” in BJP supporters’ language. All BJP politicians, especially the top leadership of the party and the Lok Sabha candidates, changed the name of their X (formerly Twitter) handles and added “main bhi chowkidar” after their name. That was the beginning of the BJP’s “main bhi chowkidar” campaign and it worked wonders for the party to effectively evade the sharp attacks from the Congress.
This time too, in a déjà vu moment for the Congress-led INDIA bloc, the BJP jumped to capitalise on the ‘family’ remarks by Lalu Prasad Yadav as all BJP leaders added “Modi ka Parivaar” after their name. The party said that the 140 crore people of this country are the family of PM Modi and even those “who have no one also belong to Modi and Modi belongs to them.”
Like 2019, this seems to be the beginning of a big campaign move to invoke emotion for PM Modi’s image, which can transform into a wider mandate for the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
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Published: 04 Mar 2024, 08:51 PM IST