A day after the dates for polls were announced, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley termed the general election as a choice between “Modi or chaos” even as the ruling BJP stepped up its preparatory work. Calling the opposition’s Mahagathbandhan a “self-destructive coalition of rivals”, Jaitley said “the contest is between a leader in whose hand the country is developing and secure”. In his blog, Jaitley wrote: “He is trusted. Against him it is no one projected leader. There are multiple leaders, each trying to outwit the other. They can only promise a temporary Government if we go by the past precedents. One can be certain of chaos. The choice is clear - it is either Modi or chaos.” “What was promised to be ‘Mahagathbandhan’ is turning out to be a ‘gathbandhan’ of several conflicting gathbandhans. It is a self-destructive ‘coalition of rivals’,” Jaitley said, highlighting conflicts among parties in the proposed coalition against BJP-led NDA. Alleging that the leadership issue in the opposition camp is a puzzle, he said: “He (Congress president Rahul Gandhi) is tried, tested and failed. His lack of understanding of issues is frightening. He aspires to be the leader of this chaotic pack. None of the political parties is capable of any significant number of seats. The alliance will not have a stable nucleus. It has a set of highly ambitious, self-centred and maverick leaders.” In contrast, Jaitley said, within the NDA there are no leadership issues. “There is absolute clarity. Shri Narendra Modi leads the NDA and will be the Prime Minister in the event of the NDA victory. His leadership is nationally accepted, his ratings are very high. His track record speaks for itself,” said Jaitley. Meanwhile, the BJP’s senior leaders held meetings to finalise their campaign strategy, schedule and other preparations. Party general secretaries met at BJP headquarters while Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Minister of State Gajendra Shekhawat and Home Minister Rajnath Singh attended a meeting of farmer leaders to discuss points for the manifesto. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and party vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan also participated in the discussions.
