Dampened spirit

The slipping polling percentage in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections has alarmed the Bharatiya Janata Party. People are citing several reasons for this phenomenon, be it harvest season or scorching heat. Another possible cause for the low turnout is that speeches and advertisements have convinced people that the National Democratic Alliance is going to win more than 400 seats. However, the BJP think tank is worried about what will happen if those castes and communities that lean towards the Opposition vote vigorously, while those in favour of the NDA either stay indoors to beat the heat or remain busy with the harvest. Such a situation could wreak havoc for the NDA’s aims. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, has thus been appealing to voters to come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise. At a rally in Forbesganj, Bihar, Modi devoted a fairly large part of his speech to encourage people to vote. “I understand it is summer, but you should discharge the duty of casting your vote even in adverse circumstances in national interest.” He also asked people to come out in groups of 20 to 25 and march to the polling booths, singing and playing music as if it were a festival of democracy. His underlying worry was not lost on anyone.

Eagerly awaited

Fans of the Tamil superstar, Vijay, want to know when he and his party will contest the elections. The actor with a massive fan following in the southern states had launched his political party, Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam, in February, but has chosen to wait to contest elections.

In a state where filmdom and politics are intricately linked, Vijay is the latest actor to take the political plunge. His fans are thus desperately waiting to cast their votes for Vijay and his party, whenever that may be.

Changed tack

The BJP’s mascot, Narendra Modi, has not only stopped raising the aggressive slogan, “ Abkibaar chaar sau paar ”, but has also dropped another key plank. He has stopped highlighting that for him there are only four castes — “ gareeb , mahila , naujawanaur kisan ”. Modi had taken up this slogan to counter the Opposition’s pitch for a caste census. But party insiders said that feedback from the ground suggested that talk of ‘only four castes’ had planted the fear of the reservation of benefits being withdrawn for large sections of Dalits and tribal people. The Opposition’s campaign that Modi was pushing for a brute majority to change the Constitution and withdraw reservations strengthened this belief. Now, the PM has been trying desperately to turn the tables on the Opposition by blatantly accusing it, particularly the Congress, of plotting to ‘loot’ the reservations of SCs/STs/OBCs and give it to Muslims. To do this, the PM has latched on to a long-existing provision in Congress-ruled Karnataka where Muslims are included in the wider OBC category. Ironically, this provision was introduced by a government led by H.D. Deve Gowda, who is now an ally of the BJP.

Heat victim

The Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar, is not keeping too well and is suspected to be suffering from dementia. The Opposition, especially the Rashtriya Janata Dal, used these rumours to claim that the BJP has stopped Nitish from sharing the stage with Narendra Modi. Many fell for this claim. Incidentally, Nitish did not attend Modi’s rally in Gaya in mid-April and was also not seen with Modi in Forbesganj. However, he later turned up at a rally at Munger with the PM. A senior leader from the Janata Dal (United) chalked these absences up to the heat wave, while the former Lok Janshakti Party chief, Chirag Paswan, said that the PM himself had asked senior leaders to canvass elsewhere to reach out to more people.

Birthday bumps

One meeting between the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, EP Jayarajan, and the BJP in-charge of Kerala, Prakash Javadekar, was enough to set tongues wagging. While Jayarajan, the convenor of the Left Democratic Front, clarified that the occasion was his grandson’s birthday party and the meeting was very brief, the visit has come in handy for the Congress which is under attack over its leaders switching to the BJP.

Reel parallel

The Aam Aadmi Party has labelled the BJP anti-Dalit after the Delhi lieutenant-governor, V.K. Saxena, withheld the nomination of a presiding officer to conduct annual mayoral polls in Delhi. The post is reserved for scheduled castes this year and the LG has withheld the nomination as it has not been forwarded by the CM, Arvind Kejriwal, who is unable to do so from behind bars. The AAP has cited the stalled poll of Delhi and tweeted a meme of PM Modi in the likeness of The Dictator played by Sacha Baron Cohen in 2012.