A guarantee within a guarantee is playing out this election. An “Amitbhai ki guarantee”, as BJP insiders call it, nestling within the hard shell of the staple “Modi ki guarantee”.
The objective is clear: to cement home minister Amit Shah’s position as Number Two at a time when the question of who will succeed Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been causing a silent churn in party ranks.
While “Modi ki guarantee” remains the main poll pitch for every NDA candidate, the second guarantee is reserved for a lucky few. It’s Shah’s “guarantee” to turn a candidate, if victorious, into a “bada admi (big man)”.
Shah has been exhorting voters at select constituencies to ensure the victory of the NDA nominee, adding authoritatively: “Inko bada admi banane ka kaam main karoonga (I will turn him into a big man).”
At least four NDA candidates, including two of Shah’s junior colleagues in the home ministry — Ajay Mishra Teni and Nityanand Rai — have so far received this “special blessing”.
“People of Khiri, we have given you a readymade minister. You make Ajay Mishra victorious, I will perform the job of turning him into a big man,” Shah told a rally in Khiri early in May.
The junior home minister’s son Ashish is an accused in the killing of four farmers and a local journalist, who were run over by a car belonging to the minister during the farmers’ agitation in 2021.
While the Opposition has been castigating the BJP for ignoring the widespread demands for Teni’s ouster, Shah seemed to be promising a bigger role for him if Modi returned to power.
Shah referred to his other junior, Nityanand Rai, as “mera jigri (my bosom friend)” at a rally in Ujiarpur constituency. “I am telling you, I will make him a bahut bada admi (very big man),” he said.
Observers suggested the Yadav politician might be projected as the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate during next year’s Bihar polls, which should be bad news for ally Nitish Kumar.
Party insiders say that Shah’s guarantees are a serious matter. For instance, he had made a similar appeal last December at a rally in Kunkuri during the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls.
“Vote for him. We will make him a big man when we come to power,” Shah had said, campaigning for Vishnu Deo Sai. The tribal leader went on to become chief minister.
Shah’s effort to cement his position as the party’s second-in-command through the current “guarantee” blitz comes against the backdrop of Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal trying to stir up strife in the BJP by suggesting a possible succession battle.
Kejriwal has claimed the BJP leadership plans to sideline Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to pave the way for Shah’s ascent.
The home minister continued handing out his guarantees on Sunday, bestowing the benefit on two turncoats in two states, Bihar and Punjab.
“Upendra Kushwaha is a big leader. Send him to Parliament without any kintu-parantu (ifs and buts) and the BJP will take care of the job of making him a big man,” Shah said in Karakat, Bihar.
Kushwaha, an OBC leader, won from Karakat as the NDA nominee in 2014 but fought on an RJD-led mahagathbandhan ticket in 2019 and lost. He then returned to the JDU only to jump ship again, float a new party, and tie up with the BJP.
The other beneficiary was Ravneet Singh Bittu, who crossed over to the BJP just before the general election and has been fielded from Ludhiana.
“Bittu has been my friend for the past five years…. Make him victorious and it will be my job to make him a big man,” Shah told a rally.
Kushwaha and Bittu are both believed to be facing a tough contest. Popular Bhojpuri actor-singer Pawan Singh, contesting as an Independent after the BJP fielded him from Asansol in Bengal and then dropped him, is threatening to spoil Kushwaha’s party by eating into the Rajput vote.
“After Modi’s rally and Shah’s ‘bada admi’ promise, we are confident that the Rajputs would vote for our leader,” a Kushwaha aide said.
In Sikh-dominated Punjab, the mood is said to be strongly against the BJP since the yearlong farmer protests in 2020-21. Bittu’s supporters too feel that Shah’s promise can help turn the tide.
At the Ludhiana rally, Shah accused the state’s AAP government of corruption and said: “Mark my words, after the BJP’s landslide victory, this Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab won’t last long.”