Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to carpet-bomb Maharashtra and Jharkhand with election rallies, buoyed by his party’s unexpected victory last month in Haryana where a nervous BJP had underplayed the Modi card.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to hold 11 rallies in a week in Maharashtra
from Friday, state BJP chief Chandrasekhar Bawankule has said.

More Modi rallies are expected till November 18, the last day for campaigning before Maharashtra votes on November 20 to elect a 288-member Assembly.

In Jharkhand, where polling will be held on November 13 and 20 for an 81-member Assembly, the Prime Minister is expected to launch his campaign on Monday with rallies at Garhwa and Chaibasa.

Party leaders said Modi was likely to address over a half-dozen rallies in the eastern state.

In contrast, Modi had held just four election meetings in Haryana, which has 90 Assembly seats, apparently because the party feared imminent defeat and wanted to protect the Prime Minister’s image.

“The surprise victory in Haryana has been a big morale booster for party leaders and cadres. This has emboldened us to go out with full force in Maharashtra. Modiji and all other senior leaders will therefore address a large number of rallies,” a BJP manager overseeing the Maharashtra polls said.

In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had suffered setbacks in Maharashtra and Haryana, in both of which it was in the government. While the party and its allies won just 17 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, the BJP’s score in Haryana was 5 out of 10.

Therefore, till last month, the BJP was doubtful about winning the Assembly elections in either state. But the Haryana triumph has raised the party’s self-belief in Maharashtra, too.

“With hard work, we have changed the negative atmosphere the Opposition had fostered with its false propaganda during the Lok Sabha polls. The ground situation is now in our favour,” the BJP’s Maharashtra mascot and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis recently said.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, known for his polarising campaigns, is likely to address nearly two dozen rallies in Maharashtra and close to a dozen in Jharkhand, a party leader said. In both states, the BJP campaign is pursuing a hard Hindutva line.

Since coming to power at the Centre in 2014, the BJP had pitched Modi as its face in all state elections.

Whirlwind rallies by the Prime Minister were held in the three heartland states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — where Assembly polls were conducted months before the general election. The BJP won all three, and dubbed the success a victory of the “Modi Ki Guarantee” slogan.

But Haryana witnessed a departure from the normal amid the post-general-election gloom.

“But the pall that hung over the party after the Lok Sabha polls has lifted following the Haryana victory. Brand Modi is rocking again,” a BJP parliamentarian said.