Divine intervention

Five years ago, right after the culmination of the campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the then Bharatiya Janata Party president, Amit Shah, and the prime minister, Narendra Modi, had arrived at the party headquarters to address the media. Doing all the talking at the conference, Shah had asserted that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was headed for a mandate bigger than that of 2014. He had even claimed that the saffron party alone would get more than 300 seats. When the results were declared, the BJP secured 303 seats while the NDA 353 seats. This time, however, the party leadership has refrained from organising such a media address. The party’s top leaders, from Modi to Shah and even the current BJP chief, JP Nadda, were seen making a beeline for temples after the campaigning for the seventh and final phase of the general election closed on May 30. While Modi, after his last rally in Punjab, headed to pray at different temples in South India and then go for meditation at the Kanyakumari Rock Memorial from May 30 to June 1, Shah visited holy shrines such as Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, Venkateswara Swamy temple in Tirupati and the Somnath temple in his home state, Gujarat. At every temple, he was accompanied by his wife. Similarly, Nadda offered prayers at some key temples in his home state, Himachal Pradesh, along with his wife. This has led many in the BJP to believe that the party desperately needs a divine intervention this time to secure a third term with ‘char sau paar’.

Evil eye

Politicians are not strangers to superstition. Most politicians — barring perhaps those from the Left parties — have their own superstitious beliefs. The deputy chief minister of Karnataka, DK Shivakumar, is among them. The principal troubleshooter of the Congress in the state, Shivakumar strongly believes that one of his political adversaries, who frequents an ancient temple in Kannur in neighbouring Kerala, has resorted to a ritual to see the downfall of Shivakumar and the CM, Siddaramaiah.

DK Shivakumar

However, the very mention of ritualistic sacrifice seemed to have annoyed R Bindu, the education minister of Kerala, who asserted that such practices are not followed in her state.

Mind the gap

BJP workers and supporters had gone gaga when the PM, Narendra Modi, asked them to stay hydrated to beat the heat while campaigning for the LS polls several weeks ago. They had rejoiced about how caring Modi was. Cut to his rally at Dehri in the Rohtas district in Bihar on May 25. The BJP workers eagerly went to listen to Modi despite scorching temperatures and severe heat wave-like conditions. Keeping in mind his advice, they carried water bottles along with them. However, they were in for a rude shock when the security personnel forced them to dump the bottles outside before entering the venue, which was an airstrip. They had no option but to abide by the order.

The rally turned out to be an ordeal; many of the workers fainted or vomited owing to heatstroke and returned home from the rally ill, cursing the organisers and the security arrangements. Several of them not only rued the wastage of gallons of drinking water but also said out loud that the PM should put his words of care into action.

Questions to ponder

The Congress has contested nine out of the 40 LS seats in Bihar, leaving the rest for its allies. The Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, addressed three rallies on May 27 before the campaign drew to a close. Now a multiple-choice question has started doing the rounds among the party leaders: how many seats will the party win in the state? The choices are one, two, and none.

Some leaders labelled this as dark humour, others called it the handiwork of rebels who lost out in the ticket race. A few saner ones, however, said that there could be some rationale behind the question — the party delayed the announcement of candidates which affected the campaign besides overlooking state party stalwarts and dedicated workers while giving tickets. Now everyone is waiting for June 4 to know the answer.

Controversial tune

The Oscar-winner, MM Keeravani, is in the eye of the storm for composing the Telangana anthem, which is based on a poem by the Dalit poet, Ande Sri. While Keeravani has the blessings of the CM, A Revanth Reddy, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi has objected to Keeravani composing the state anthem — set to be released on the Telangana Formation Day on June 2 — because of his Andhra origins.