Into its last week in Madhya Pradesh, the poll campaign has reached its crescendo and literally taken an ‘epic’ form with national leaders of both the BJP and the Congress making abundant references to characters from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata to attack each other.
References to Lord Ram, Lord Hanuman and Ayodhya temple have expectedly found multiple references in the speeches of various leaders, especially those from the BJP, but the entry of other characters from the much revered epics into the poll campaign has become noticeable lately.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday termed the Enforcement Directorate, CBI, Income Tax, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the ‘Panch Pandavas’ who need to be defeated.
Kharge’s analogy drew sharp reaction from Modi and Chouhan.
“We are proud to be walking the path laid by the Pandavas,” Modi said at a public meeting in Damoh on Wednesday.
In Sendhwa of Barwani, Chouhan went a step further to say “Kharge ji has accepted that they are the Kauravas (cousins whom Pandavas fought with in the Mahabharata).”
“There was only one Dhritarashtra in the Mahabharata, who was fighting to wrest power for his son and became the cause of the end of the Kauravas. But in Madhya Pradesh, there are two Dhritarashtras (reference to Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh) who are hell bent on sacrificing the entire Congress in a bid to establish their sons,” the chief minister further said.
Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra compared the BJP to ‘Ahiravana’, another Ramayana character.
“The way Ahiravana had deceived Lord Ram and Laxmana (to abduct them), the same way some impersonators have deceived you (people), too. They robbed the government chosen by you and took it to the bhrashtachar lok (land of corruption). If you do not become Lord Hanuman (who killed Ahiravana) today, who will rectify the game of cheating?,” she said in her public meeting at Sanver in Indore.
Vadra also called upon people to look for the morals of Lord Ram in the leaders they elect.
On Tuesday evening, Kharge had taken another potshot at Chouhan in Bhopal, saying, “One person keeps saying that he is ‘Shiv-raj’. Then even my name is Mallikarjun; I, too, am the avatar of the God, Lord Shankar.”
Hordes of leaders coming to MP
Leaders are descending upon the poll-bound state in hordes with the ruling BJP clearly outdoing the Congress in this regard. Election campaign will end in Madhya Pradesh on November 15 and all the parties contesting the polls will be expectedly giving their best shot in the remaining duration.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the state for the sixth time on Wednesday after the elections were announced. He addressed three poll rallies during the day. The prime minister was in the state on Tuesday, too, and is expected in Chhatarpur again on Thursday.
The tours of Union home minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel and other leaders of the BJP are increasing in numbers as the date of polling—November 17—closes in.
This is apart from the hectic touring by state leaders, mainly Chouhan, who conducts multiple rallies each day, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and other central ministers and leaders who are either in-charge of the poll management or/and candidates in the poll.
The Congress is focusing on the visits of party president Kharge, ex-president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Vadra was in the state on November 6, too, and will be again here on November 9 to participate in campaigns in Satna and Rewa districts. Rahul Gandhi is also expected in the state on November 9 to address two poll meetings in Ashoknagar and Jabalpur.
On Wednesday, Adityanath, Sarma and Patel addressed multiple public meetings. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Supremo Mayawati, Delhi and Punjab chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party, also addressed poll meetings in the state, though a meeting of Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav got deferred due to his helicopter developing snag, sources said.
