Modified Appeal

If the BJP still doesn8217;t get it, the party must be collectively blind. On Day 1 of the party8217;s planned carpet bombing to the polls...

If the BJP still doesn8217;t get it, the party must be collectively blind. On Day 1 of the party8217;s planned carpet bombing to the polls, star campaigner and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi could muster up a crowd of barely few thousand.

And the meeting was held just adjacent to the Bhojshala, the party8217;s most potent Hindutva-related issue in Madhya Pradesh. The reasons for today8217;s flop show are not hard to spot. Everything points to a clear anti-incumbency, as a short talk with any farmer along the Indore-Dhar road would reveal.

Facing an acute power crisis, they were not eager to reach Dhar and hear about Godhra or, for that matter, Bhojshala. In a final irony, Modi did choose to speak of development. But the sparse crowd showed little or no response till Modi spoke of the return of the Saraswati idol from London that the Hindu Jagran Manch wants installed in the Bhojshala.

Once again it seemed clear the party had selected the wrong man for the message they wanted to send out in this campaign. The failure of their candidate Jaswant Singh, till recently the RSS district sanchalak, to muster a crowd today also had much to do with the local BJP unit distancing itself after its candidate was dropped at the last moment.

Modi began with the state of roads, and the lack of infrastructure in MP. He accused Digvijay of forcing MP into the BIMARU category over the past 10 years, a difficult claim to sustain in the case of a category which is defined by MP8217;s presence. He then took on Digvijay8217;s oft-repeated statement that he would not let MP become a Gujarat.

Claiming that Digvijay was not capable of doing so, Modi said that to turn it into Gujarat it would require drinking water for the people of the state. Gujarat, he added, had taken waters of the Narmada into Kutch while Digvijay could not even take it to people living on the river banks.

Modi also harped on the fact that for MP to turn into Gujarat, it would require promises of Rs 66,000 crore in foreign investments.

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Though Digvijay may indeed learn the lesson Modi was pointing at by the time results are out, it was the Gujarat CM8217;s turn to learn from the sparse crowd that his charisma doesn8217;t extend beyond the Gujarat border.

nbsp;	Modi loses cool: Congress should field Zaheera as star campaigner

		nbsp;	INDORE: Modi spent most of the time fielding questions on Judeo at his press conference on Tuesday. His defence was that it was a Congress conspiracy. But he did not deny the charge, and when asked about Judeo8217;s comment on Mahatma Gandhi collecting money as well, he said the question should be directed to Judeo. When asked about the message the party wanted to project by handing over poll management in Dhar to people like Madhu Srivastava, Modi lost his cool. 8216;8216;What do you mean like Madhu Srivastava, he is an elected MLA. If the Congress is so afraid of Srivastava, they should have the guts to field Zaheera as their star campaigner. If they believe in social harmony they should take her around all the four states.8217;8217; At this point, Modi walked off. ENS	nbsp;