As the Madhya Pradesh assembly election campaign enters into the 'last lap' phase with just 10 days remaining, the BJP has pressed into service its galaxy of leaders with four helicopters and three aircraft to ferry them around. However, the response to the rallies of some senior leaders has been disappointing.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing 10 rallies in five days in various regions of Madhya Pradesh, BJP president Amit Shah will be addressing more than two dozen rallies in an equal number of districts in a period of seven days.
Interestingly, it is Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who remains in 'greatest demand'. Apart from Chouhan, the leader in high demand is Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Other leaders like Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar are also continuously moving around Madhya Pradesh addressing events. Instead of addressing rallies, Jaitley was asked to speak with a gathering of intellectuals in Jabalpur.
However, the 'outsider' leaders are not getting sizeable crowds. In Sagar, a public meeting of Minister of State Babul Supriyo had to be cancelled as neither the local candidate nor sizeable crowds turned up at the venue.
Similarly, public meetings of Irani and Amit Shah could not get the kind of audience expected by the BJP. Videos and photos of empty chairs and the poor attendance at the BJP rallies have gone viral.
Even Modi had faced an awkward situation in Shahdol when students from colleges had to be brought in at the last minute to fill the chairs in his public meeting.
Unsurprisingly, an exception to this trend has been Chouhan who has been getting a good response in his public meetings.
