Perhaps fearing a low turnout of the crowd in a public meeting in comparison to the massive Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance’s Jan Vishwas Maharally in Patna on March 3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to hit the road in Bihar’s capital on May 12 evening. Though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed that this roadshow was a big success, it caused massive disruption to road, rail and air traffic. For the first time no train, including Rajdhani Express, stopped at the Patna Junction on that evening and passengers were compelled to board from Danapur, 12 kilometres away.
Standing beside Modi was visibly downcast Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar nervously holding BJP’s symbol Lotus in hand. His sorry plight reminded one of his mentor ailing (and now late) George Fernandes who insisted on contesting the 2009 Lok Sabha election as an Independent candidate – after Nitish denied him a Janata Dal (United) ticket. Once the brain behind the mainstreaming of the BJP which became a political outcast following the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 and one of the architects of the National Democratic Alliance, Fernandes ended up fifth in his own constituency, Muzaffarpur and got just 22,804 votes.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Like Fernandes, the Bihar chief minister is not in the mood to call it a day till last. The BJP appears to be making full use of his weakness.
The roadshow, the first by any prime minister in the city, was choreographed in such a way that it may sound more dramatic with Marya Shakeel, executive editor (national affairs) of NDTV, originally from Bihar conducting Modi’s interview. The choice of a Muslim woman journalist from the state was perhaps made to dispel the misgivings that the Prime Minister nurses any grudge against the largest minority of the country. But such an exercise only backfires, rather than work wonder as speeches in Banswara and other places are too fresh.
After an overnight stay in Raj Bhawan Modi flew to Hajipur, Vaishali and Saran to address gatherings for Lok Janshakti Party’s Chirag Paswan and Veena Singh respectively as well as for BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who is facing a tough battle against Rohini Acharya, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav’s second daughter.
Roadshows galore
From Bihar, on May 13, he entered his own constituency Varanasi, where he undertook another
roadshow and filed his nomination papers on the following day.
Incidentally, Modi addressed four election rallies in West Bengal on May 12 before flying to Patna in the evening. He has so far addressed about 100 public meetings ever since the announcement of election dates on March 16. He may deliver two dozen more speeches in the next fortnight.
No prime minister has held so many rallies. And certainly, no one had ever taken to the streets to cause so much inconvenience to the common masses. Not to speak in North India, where the BJP is strong, he had hit the roads in several cities of South India, not only during the election campaign but during the whirlwind tour of 11 days in January just before the consecration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. In April 2023 too, he organised a road show in Kerala when there was no election in the state.
Obsessive proportion
This obsession with roadshows is causing a lot of problems to the common citizens. Unlike public meetings which are held in open fields with wide thoroughfares connecting them from airports or helipads, roadshows are made in narrow and densely-populated streets, where making security arrangements is a challenging job for the district administration. That happened in Patna, Bangalore (in last year’s Assembly election too), Coimbatore, Kochi, Varanasi or anywhere else. Thousands of policemen are deployed for this purpose. They keep a strict vigil from the top of all the buildings on the routes.
There is a serious misunderstanding that the road shows are unique ideas and would bring more and more voters to the BJP fold. Instead, they are causing more hardship and making even the supporters of the BJP angry. They are turning away from the saffron party. Such an exercise did not yield results in Karnataka in the assembly election last year.
Luckily, the Patna roadshow was held on Sunday but it covered all the important routes leading to railway stations, bus stands, airports, hospitals, nursing homes, etc., for several hours from afternoon to late in the night.
In Patna, passengers had to cancel their tickets or miss their trains and planes, some of which were delayed. Those who got down with heavy luggage had to wait in the railway stations, bus stands and airport for hours as they could not go home because of the road blockade. Ambulances were made to wait for hours and daily wage-earners were forced to stay in their homes – all in the name of greeting the Prime Minister.
Show in Banaras
Unlike Patna, Varanasi was not so lucky this time as the roadshow was held on Monday, a working day. Modi also offered prayer in a couple of temples and on the bank of river Ganga.
This display of his persona was seen in 2014 when he first contested from Varanasi, and in 2019 as well as in the 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections.
Apart from road shows Modi had brought foreign dignitaries to this holy city, for example, the then Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe attended the Ganga Aarti on December 12, 2015.
However, journalists covering the event are of the view that the turnout was not so strong and enthusiastic this time as in 2014 and 2019. Maybe, they have become used to it or have lost interest in such an exercise.
Even those supporters of BJP who were waving hands to Modi on Monday told media persons that price rise is a matter of worry and needs to be controlled.
Of late, the Prime Minister is giving a lot of interviews to newspapers and television channels. This too has acquired obsessive proportion.
Any such overexposure is likely to have diminishing returns.
