Has BJP Launched a Premature Election Campaign With Operation Sindoor Symbolism?

On May 28, Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar came out with a report based on the party sources that a country-wide door-to-door sindoor (vermilion) distribution campaign was going to be launched on June 9, the first anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term. The objective might have been to celebrate the military achievements made during Operation Sindoor but it electrified the party rank and file across India even as they mistook this report, and thought the move would benefit the BJP in winning elections in the poll-bound states.

There was no immediate denial of the report. It took more than 48 hours for the BJP to suddenly declare that it was “fake news”. In fact, the May 30 refutation came following massive protest from a group of women who deemed it as a blatant encroachment into the age-old Hindu tradition as sindoor can only be offered by a husband to his wife and by no other person.

Election mode

The problem is that the BJP always thinks in election mode – even if there does not exist any such scope. At times, it has had to pay a heavy price for displaying this immaturity. 

Assembly election are scheduled in October-November this year for Bihar and in March-April, 2026, for West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. However, the party is going at a breakneck speed to cash in on the post-Operation Sindoor sentiment. It has happened several times in the past that the BJP’s poll campaign reached its peak much ahead of the election schedule. So, by the time the election date arrives, its narrative becomes repetitive and stale.

The party needs to be reminded that the Balakot strike on Pakistan happened on February 26, 2019 – within 45 days ahead of the first phase of polling for the Lok Sabha election that year. Even the 1999 Lok Sabha election started just two months after the end of the prolonged Kargil War. 

But keeping up the heat for over five months in case of Bihar and almost a year for the rest five states – West Bengal being the most crucial one – is going to be a challenging task.

Lesson not learnt

The BJP has not learnt any lesson from the 2021 Assembly election in West Bengal that took place at the height of coronavirus. It sounded the poll bugle about six months in advance with the arrival of Union home minister Amit Shah in Kolkata on November 4, 2020. By the time of the election in April, BJP’s poll narrative lost its direction and there was nothing new left for it to offer to voters. In this long campaign the saffron party bigwigs committed several serious political blunders.

At the same time, the six months span helped the Trinamool Congress re-group itself and stage a counter campaign against the BJP.

Last month, Prime Minister Modi landed in Alipurduar in North Bengal on May 29 and than moved to Bihar the same evening. The objective was to whip up nationalistic sentiment in the aftermath of the four-day-long military confrontation with Pakistan. Three days later on June 1, home minister Amit Shah visited the state with the same objective.

What the BJP top brass is not understanding is that there is certain limitation to politicking. 

The way in which prime minister and his colleagues are visiting different states, especially poll-bound ones, to use Operation Sindoor for electoral gain does not seem to be going down well. The poor response to PM’s road-show in the heart of Bihar’s capital, Patna, on May 29 is a point in case.

By the time he touched down at Patna airport for a two day trip to the state, social media was already abuzz with the denouncement of the party’s Operation Sindoor of a different kind – that is distribution of sindoor to women.

'Hurting Hindu sentiment'

YouTubers, including Neha Singh Rathore and others, went on a warpath against the BJP for “hurting the sentiment” of crores of married Hindu women by making such a blasphemous announcement to distribute sindoor.

Prior to it, the party had taken lightly the criticism from West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress leaders but it had to rush for cover when such a massive reaction came from the women, especially in Bihar. To damage control, on May 30, the party dubbed the Dainik Bhaskar report as fake. But it was too late.

It is clear that the BJP central leadership is not prepared to accept the fact that if the party goes for overkill, it is bound to make mistakes. This happened even in the case of months-long Ram Janambhoomi consecretion campaign in Ayodhya which ultimately took place on January 22, 2024. The whole show had been launched in such a crude manner that the party lost the Ayodhya Lok Sabha seat in the election held four months later. BJP had a disastrous performance in the all-important state of Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP has a habit of concentrating its energy on the wrong front. For example, Prime Minister Modi spent 11 days in January 2024 in Tamil Nadu, and later too, he campaigned extensively in this state, only to end up as a cropper – the party failed to open its account. Yet, the maximum energy was spent on Tamil Nadu. Even Sengol, which had its origin in Tamil Nadu, was brought at the time of inauguration of the new Parliament building.

In Bihar, today, the election bugle has not been sounded yet but Modi made a point to visit Madhubani on April 24, just two days after Pahalgam massacre of 26 souls. He chose the district bordering Nepal to warn Pakistan. 

Thirty-five days later, he was in Patna and Bikramganj telling the crowd that he had fulfilled the pledge he made to teach Pakistan a lesson. 

Rahul Gandhi’s stand

It is not that the opposition in backing off amid the BJP’s campaign. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi too had visited Bihar four times this year and he is scheduled to make another trip on June 6. However, he did not raise the issue of Operation Sindoor in his last trip to Patna and Darbhanga on May 15. 

Gandhi concentrated his campaign on caste census and paid a visit to Ambedkar Hostel in Darbhanga, notwithstanding the ban imposed on its entry. He rubbed shoulders with the Dalit students and openly denounced the NDA government for ignoring them. The district authority even lodged FIRs against him for defying its order.

On June 6, Rahul will be addressing a meeting of extremely backward castes, or EBCs, in Nalanda district.

Perhaps, he has understood that by October-November, when the elections arrive, the sindoor symbolism will lose its electoral attraction. Voters have bigger problems.

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