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Journalism of Courage
The show of strength organised before BJP president Amit Shah filed his nomination in Gandhinagar will radiate far beyond the limits of his immediate Lok Sabha constituency. Given the importance given to this by the BJP, the show of strength cannot escape comparison when Narendra Modi filed his nomination papers for his maiden Lok Sabha contest in 2014.
While a representative of Apna Dal was on the road show vehicle on the way to his filing of nomination, it was Amit Shah, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and UP BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai who accompanied the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi on April 24, 2014. A fortnight earlier, party’s state unit leaders and national party in-charge of Gujarat Om Mathur accompanied Modi at the time of filing of his nomination in Vadodara in 2014.
Amit Shah, in contrast, has pulled a much grander assembly of leaders at the time of filing of his papers for first Lok Sabha elections.
He has not only got top leaders of stronger alliance partners — Shiv Sena, Akali Dal and LJP — but also got two former party presidents — Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari — standing in support. This clearly signals the political weight of Amit Shah in the BJP and NDA’s scheme of things.
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However, the absence of party patriarch L K Advani, who represents the constituency in outgoing Lok Sabha, at the grand show will not go unnoticed.
And age cannot even be an excuse as another nonagenarian Parkash Singh Badal did come for the show.
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