Modi and Rahul go all-out to win UP... But who has the style to woo the Hindi heartland?
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As the political battle for 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh intensifies, BJP's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi and Congress's undeclared candidate for the top post Rahul Gandhi are receiving maximum applause from their supporters for their aggressive campaigning.
While Modi highlights the failures of Congress-led governments over the past several decades, Rahul reminds the people of threats of communalism. While the BJP's poster boy says what India would be if his party comes to power, the Nehru-Gandhi scion mentions about the government's development efforts so far.
But despite every effort by the two leaders to keep the crowds spellbound by selling them dreams and hurling barbs at each other, their election campaigns have started turning monotonous. What remains in the minds of voters in the end are the comparative individualistic opinions and characteristic styles of the leaders.
The BJP's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi (left) and the Congress's undeclared candidate for the top post Rahul Gandhi have adopted differing - but equally zealous - campaign tactics
Modi thinks he can sail through the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by highlighting the Congress's failures and misdeeds of the last 60 years. He is also trying to make poverty and inflation an issue.
In his rallies in Kanpur on October 19 and Jhansi on October 25, the Gujarat chief minister said the Congress had insulted people by keeping them poor and jobless and it should be punished in the next general elections.
Rahul, on the other hand, believes that he can ensure a respectable tally for his party on the basis of UPA's pro-poor schemes launched during its two back-to-back tenures. He holds in private that inflation and poverty cannot be election issues.
At the same time, the Congress vice- president claims the non-Congress governments are responsible for poverty in their respective states. In his rally in Rampur on October 9, he blamed the SP government for hunger in Uttar Pradesh.
At political rallies, Modi walks slowly while waving his hand to the crowd as if he is not in a hurry. He gently takes his seat and remains still, before standing up to address the cheering supporters. His voice is naturally heavy and firm, and he stresses on at least one word of every sentence.
The 63-year-old wipes his face with a handkerchief frequently and takes small sips of water from a glass kept beside the mike. He doesn't mention the name of Rahul but addresses him as Shahzada (prince).
Modi, who doesn't keep a mobile phone, starts and concludes his speech with slogan "Bharat Mata Ki…" and the public responds, "Jai."
Rahul, on the other hand, appears restless as he takes quick steps onto the stage. When the Congress vice-president plops down on a chair before addressing a rally, he hits one of his soles on the floor with musical frequency. He also keeps browsing his mobile.
Rahul's voice is soft but he often tries to make it heavier in his speech to appear tough and angry. Mostly, he doesn't take names of any politicians other than his grandmother Indira Gandhi, father Rajiv Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi.
He starts addressing with questions, or an apology for being late. He concludes with dhanyawad (thank you).
Both the leaders are continuously in dialogue with the crowd during their speeches, hoping to establish a rapport with them.
During his speech, Rahul asks the crowd about many things, including the Centre's schemes like RTI and MGNREGA, as if he is quizzing them. He often starts his sentence with "I want to tell you something."
Modi repeats many a time in his speeches, "I want to ask you something." Then he asks questions like, "Did you get anything under the Congress rule?"
SP pampers Muslims in poll campaign launch
Pulling out all the stops to reach out to Muslims in riot-torn Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Mulayam Singh has claimed that the BJP's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi's presence outside Gujarat is negligible.
He was addressing the party's first poll rally in Azamgarh on Tuesday ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. "His (Modi's) presence is confined to Gujarat and television," Mulayam said.
The Muslim-dominated Azamgarh district had turned hostile against the SP chief owing to his "half-hearted efforts" to fulfil the promise of releasing the Muslim youth lodged in several jails for their alleged role in terror activities.
UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav (L-R), Mulayam Singh Yadav and Azam Khan at Tuesday's rally
Vowing strict action against the police officers who had "implicated" the Muslim youth in terror cases, the party during its campaign ahead of the 2012 Assembly elections had said it would do all possible steps to release them.
The courts, however, questioned the SP government's intention. Following this, people in the district from where the maximum numbers of Muslim youth were arrested for alleged terror activities charged that the state government did no "honest effort" before seeking their release.
During the rally, Mulayam tried his best to pamper the community.
"Muslims have been doing a lot for India's development. Who makes jewellery? Who makes Banarasi saris? Who made missiles for the country? The Muslims… former President Abdul Kalam had made missiles for India," he said, adding: "And who fought against the enemies during the Indo-Pakistan War in 1965? It was Abdul Hamid."
Blaming the Congress-led UPA for its failure on every front and claiming the SP has solutions to every problem that plague India, Mulayam said: "Ten years of the Congress rule would be known for inflation, corruption and scams. Even the BJP didn't do anything for the country when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister for six years."
"We have an economic policy and an international policy. We have a plan to expand the agricultural land by constituting Bhumi Sena which will work to expand the tilled areas by cleaning the unused ravine," Mulayam said. He lashed out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for being weak. "If the PM is weak, the country will become weaker."
Talking about the recent attacks by Pakistan on the Indian border villages, he said the Indian Army gave a fitting reply to Pakistan soldiers on his orders while he was the defence minister.
"When I was the defence minister, Pakistan didn't dare to attack us. There was only one incident when Pakistan gunned down one of our helicopters. Our five soldiers had been killed. I ordered the Army to open fire continuously. Our troops killed more than 100 Pak jawans," Mulayam claimed.
He reiterated that his party would win 40 seats in the Lok Sabha elections and no party would be able to form the government at the Centre without the SP's support.
Piyush Srivastava/Lucknow
Maya takes the 'wait and watch' approach
After the BJP and the Congress started their Lok Sabha campaigns in Uttar Pradesh two weeks ago, arch-rival Samajwadi Party also kick-started its campaign on Tuesday. But BSP supremo Mayawati has adopted a 'wait and watch' policy in the politically important state.
And while the BSP chief is bidding her time, she has decided on most of her party candidates for the next year's elections. Mayawati will announce her list of candidates with some changes after seeing the names of the rival candidates in all 80 parliamentary seats of Uttar Pradesh.
A senior BSP leader told Mail Today that caste would be the deciding factor behind Mayawati's every pre-poll decision. "Her time-tested idea is to do a survey of caste composition in each parliamentary constituency and give ticket to the leader of that caste which has the largest presence. Her belief is that while the scheduled castes will vote for her candidates as usual, voters from the majority caste will also support them," he said.
"She also knows that she can be in a position to bargain even with 15 MPs if the BJP or the Congress forms government with the help of other smaller parties. Obviously, she will make her moves known only after the election results are out," he added.
The BSP has 21 MPs in the Lok Sabha at present, one short of its rival Samajwadi Party's 22. Both parties are providing outside support to the Congress-led UPA government in Delhi.
When reached for his comments on the party's caste formula, BSP general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya said: "The voters are very intelligent. They are fed up of the SP's misrule in Uttar Pradesh and the Congress at the Centre. We also believe that the voters are secular and they would reject the communal BJP. Obviously, we are the first choice of sarva samaaj in Uttar Pradesh."
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