Maharashtra’s Modi fatigue leaves Nitin Gadkari leading the charge

The BJP and the RSS have brought back union minister and former BJP president Nitin Gadkari to spearhead the Maharashtra campaign, especially after Diwali.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union minister Amit Shah were conspicuously missing during the last few days of the campaign.

While the PM, whose rallies were reportedly sparsely attended and whose speeches failed to rally the crowd, flew off to Nigeria and Brazil, Amit Shah cancelled all his rallies in Gadchiroli, ostensibly on the pretext of attending to developments in Manipur.

Even Yogi Adityanath went missing, partly because of the by-polls in his own state, but largely because there was no demand for him among the local BJP candidates.

All the divisive slogans — like batenge toh katenge (divided, we [Hindus?] will be cut down), ek hain toh safe hain (we have safety in [Hindu] unity), 'vote jihad' — Aurangzeb and Pakistan invoked by Modi, Yogi and Devendra Fadnavis did not seem to impress or enthuse Maha voters. There was palpable fatigue for the communal rhetoric — and Nitin Gadkari, who addressed as many as 72 election rallies, steered clear of the divisive agenda, focusing instead on development.

With the BJP lacking state-level leaders with appeal across the region and Fadnavis unable to campaign everywhere, the BJP had no option but to fall back on Gadkari.

Gadkari’s comeback is also due to the RSS taking over the campaign of the BJP (not of the entire Mahayuti, though). If the coalition does well, the RSS' choice for the top job will have to be between Fadnavis and Gadkari, believe observers.

In the Lok Sabha election earlier this year, Gadkari was the only BJP candidate who scored a hattrick of a victory in Nagpur, whereas in Vidarbha, the Congress strengthened its position by winning most of the remaining seats.

It is believed that out of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra assembly, the 62 seats from Vidarbha are critical for gaining power in the state. There is a direct contest between the Congress and the BJP for 40 out of the 62 seats.

For now, there is simmering anger against Fadnavis among the people of Nagpur — the deputy chief minister is accused of not doing enough for his constituency, for taking his constituents for granted. Fadnavis has been only rarely seen in the constituency and has not been there to solve the problems of the people, constituents complain.

With Fadnavis, who is himself from Vidarbha, having to fight hard to retain his seat there, Gadkari seemed a safer choice for the RSS.

While Amit Shah held 16 rallies in the state, he cancelled 4 rallies in Vidarbha in the last phase of the election campaign and returned to Delhi. The real reasons for this are not yet clear. But BJP insiders say that there is an anti-BJP atmosphere in Vidarbha, with the saffron party having placed all its emphasis on the issue of Hindutva, leaving aside the basic problems of the state: inflation, unemployment and farmers' prosperity and security.

The divisive slogans have, in fact, found few takers even in the state BJP and within the ruling Mahayuti coalition. Yogi’s ‘batenge toh katenge’ was opposed by BJP's own MLC Pankaja Munde, Ashok Chavan (who had joined the BJP from the Congress) — and NCP (Ajit faction) leader Ajit Pawar himself.

Gadkari is also tipped to be the BJP's next national president, if not to become the chief minister in Maharashtra. (Fellow hopeful Vinod Tawde's debacle of today can only improve his chances for the latter chair.)

Gadkari, whose relations with PM Modi are said to be chilly, if not outright frosty, has been lavish in his praise of former PM Vajpayee, saying if there is any leader in the history of India who got roads constructed in 3.5 lakh villages out of the 6.5 lakh villages in the country under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, then he was Atal Bihari Vajpayee — a subtle dig at Modi's score.

Whether he succeeds in steering the BJP out of the black hole it finds itself in in Maharashtra will be known only on 23 November of course, when the 'results come out'.