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Journalism of Courage
“It is not an election where there is a choice between two parties. It is an election to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister again. Abki baar 400 paar (this time, 400-plus seats),” says Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, the BJP’s candidate from Alwar in Rajasthan. The senior BJP leader is speaking at a nukkad sabha in the village of Budhi Bawal.
This statement does not evoke much of a response in a crowd of mostly men over the age of 50 and half a dozen women who seem to be eager to hear something else. Yadav follows up his statement with an assurance: “Once elected, I will resolve the water crisis you are facing.” The crowd claps.
Yadav, who handles the ministries of Labour and Employment, and Environment, Forest and Climate Change, speaks of the water table in the area going down “drastically” and goes on to blame former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for not taking “corrective steps”.
Gehlot, Yadav tells the crowd, was “biased and did not bother to address the concerns of those who did not vote for the Congress, but now Modiji has started the process”. But the Congress is not completely out of the picture in Alwar, where some voters still fondly remember its government, voted out in December.
Yadav, who has been a two-time Rajya Sabha MP and is in the Lok Sabha poll fray for the first time, faces complaints related to irrigation and water in almost every meeting in the Kishangarh Bas Assembly segment.
The Union Minister has been among the key BJP strategists under the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah leadership and played a significant role in the BJP’s campaigns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, and most recently in Madhya Pradesh. His stature in the party is a significant talking point.
“Woh toh Modi ji ke panch ratna mein ek hain (He is among the five jewels of Modi),” Rampal Yadav, a social worker, says as he waits for Yadav to arrive in Akoli village in Alwar district’s Kotkasim tehsil. Another local BJP leader, who identifies himself as Ajaypal Yadav, adds, “He will get our work done as he can directly approach Modi ji.”
Yadav will face off against Lalit Yadav, an emerging Congress leader in Rajasthan who won the Assembly polls in December from Mundawar. His rising stature in the party is also signalled by the fact that Congress has replaced former Union Minister and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Bhanwar Jitendra Singh who is one of the close aides of Rahul Gandhi. Jitendra Singh lost from Alwar the last two times.
Some local BJP leaders say the party “could have had a tough time” had it not fielded a prominent face leader such as Yadav despite the goodwill, credibility, and popularity Modi enjoys in the region.
Mahant Balaknath who resigned as Alwar MP to contest, and win, the Assembly elections from Tijara in Khairthal-Tijara district in December “did not do much for the constituency”, say local party workers.
In 2019, Balak Nath polled 60.06% of the votes, winning by more than 30,000 votes. The year before, in a bypoll, the Congress’ Karan Singh Yadav won the seat. The BJP’s Mahant Chand Nath Yogi polled 55.16% of the votes and defeated the Congress in 2014.
“He (Balaknath) was compared to Yogiji (Yogi Adityanath) and it helped improve law and order. But he did not do much work for the villages … Well, we now have these bulldozers,” says a voter, pointing to four bulldozers lined up along a narrow road to shower petals on leaders.
Yadav’s central pitch too focuses on Modi’s guarantees. Kuldeep, a former Army man, says, “I have voted for the BJP in 2014 and 2019. Honestly speaking, I want to vote for someone else. But what’s the point in giving my vote to Lalit Yadav when we have a BJP state government and Central government? He will not be able to do anything. Bhupinder ji is a senior minister and he does not have any excuse for not doing things for us.”
For Gokal Singh who runs a tea shop in Kotkasim town and for Satyaveer who works with an Anganwadi, the vote is for the “desh (country)” and Modi.
“I am fighting this election on Modi’s guarantees. I have campaigned extensively in villages and have interacted with a lot of women. I have realised that my priority as an MP should be to provide water and support the self-help groups here,” Yadav tells The Indian Express.
His campaigning days have an average of 25 stops a day. Every meeting starts with the traditional turban-tying ritual, followed by a conversation about local issues. Asked about the difference between being a strategist and a contestant, Yadav says, “When you are in charge of elections, you follow a programme. Now, it feels like a festival for me and I am at the centre of the celebrations.”
At many of Yadav’s meetings, a senior citizen takes the responsibility of listing the demands of the locals and makes Yadav promise that he will resolve them.
Although the BJP dominates the poll narrative in the constituency, in different corners of Alwar criticism of Balaknath and the BJP creeps in. Several voters say that the Congress still enjoys goodwill in the state thanks to the welfare programmes of the Gehlot government. “Hum nahi jayenge udhar, hum panje ke aadmi hain (I won’t change sides, I am a Congressman),” says a man sitting on the veranda of a small shop. Another senior citizen lists out a barrage of criticism against the BJP, from unemployment to inflation to alleged corruption in the local administration.
