File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
The defining moment of the Dussehra bonhomie where Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with Congress President Sonia Gandhi is behind him. From today, he is back to the battlefield. With no local face in Haryana and Maharashtra, the BJP is banking heavily on him for campaigning for this month's elections.
His campaign blitzkrieg includes two dozen rallies in Maharashtra over the next 10 days and 8-10 in Haryana starting with Karnal this morning.
While the PM will then head to Maharashtra's Beed, the hometown of late Union Minister Gopinath Munde, senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj will address four meetings each in Haryana.
For Maharashtra, between all its star campaigners, the BJP is planning an average of 22 public meetings a day in an attempt to cover all 288 constituencies - a massive campaign plan that the BJP's political rivals are questioning. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray questioned, "If there is a Modi wave, why is there a need to hold so many rallies?"
Kuldeep Bishnoi of the Haryana Janhit Congress, who was a BJP ally not long ago, explained, "See, people voted Modi at the Centre. Only a chief minister will hold the command on the state. Who will go to meet Modi in his office?"
This is what the BJP's opponents are banking on, whether in Haryana or Maharashtra. NCP President Sharad Pawar told NDTV, "BJP is projecting Mr Modi but I don't think it will work in state polls. Look at the Uttar Pradesh by-election results. BJP has lost eight of the nine seats."
Defending the BJP, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "People want to listen to Mr Modi. We are also trying to cover all those constituencies where he couldn't reach in the Lok Sabha elections."
PM Modi begins his campaign blitzkrieg with three rallies in Maharashtra, ending the day with a public meeting in Mumbai - at the same venue where the Shiv Sena kicked off its election campaign. As both the state units place their bets on Narendra Modi, it's a high stakes battle not just for the BJP but once again for the prime minister himself.