For BJP, Modi factor working

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 26

From Parliament to MCD poll in Delhi — the leadership attributing it all to PM Narendra Modi is being seen as a new age in the party where Modi is now the BJP.

After its grand success in the recent Assembly elections in which the Prime Minister contributed actively, the saffron party today attributed its landslide in the MCD poll also to the man and his policies at the Centre.

The Modi wave, party leaders said, continued to prevail strong and the MCD win was a proof of people’s belief in the Prime Minister — his words and works that is.

Speaking in Kolkata, party president Amit Shah declared it as a vote in favour of the Prime Minister. “People of Delhi have rejected the negative politics and politics of ‘bahanebaazi’ (excuses) and helped Modiji’s ‘vijay rath’ to move forward. It is recognition of Modiji’s leadership,” Shah said.

Though for many, it was Shah’s experiment with Manoj Tiwari — the Bhojpuri actor-cum-politician’s appointment as the BJP's Delhi chief after the party’s humiliating Assembly loss to AAP — that played a key role in the win.

Tiwari, party leaders said, brought a breath of fresh air into the party while it was at its lowest, turning it around by working not on not just the caste and regional (poorvanchal) identity but also generating goodwill among other communities as well.

But this apart, the larger view is that the BJP managed to beat the massive anti-incumbency of 10 long years in the MCD just because of the Modi factor.

“We changed all candidates to counter the anti-incumbency factor. But the win is not because of the replaced candidates whom voters could barely identify with but the Prime Minister and his policies,” they said.