BJP top brass counters Kejriwal: Modi to complete 3rd term, remain leader

“I want to say this to Arvind Kejriwal and company and INDI alliance that they do not need to feel happy about Narendra Modi turning 75. No such thing is mentioned in the BJP’s constitution. Modi ji is going to complete this term and Modi ji will continue to lead the country into the future. There is no confusion within the BJP; they want to create confusion,” Shah said in Hyderabad.

Nadda said that the party’s constitution had no age bar to occupy a post. “The opposition should have no illusions — Modi ji is our leader and will continue to lead us into the future,” he said. Kejriwal and the opposition alliance are in panic over their impending defeat, Nadda added, and their aim was to “mislead and confuse” the country by using the Prime Minister’s age as an “excuse”.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh wrote on X: “The nonsensical statements made by Arvind Kejriwal on the BJP after his release on interim bail show that BJP and NDA under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will secure a remarkable victory. The INDI alliance that can’t decide its own leader is trying to comment on our leadership. The BJP and NDA are contesting the elections under PM Modi, who will become Prime Minister again and complete his third term.”

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also took to X to attack Kejriwal’s claim that Modi sidelined LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje, Manohar Lal Khattar and Raman Singh — and that Yogi Adityanath would be the next.

“Height of shamelessness! Most of the founding members of AAP are no longer with it,” she said tagging Prashant Bhushan, Kumar Vishwas and Yogendra Yadav….Most fled frightened by brazen corruption that continues to stink around it…A person who is ordered to surrender to go back to Tihar on charges of corruption insinuates!”

BJP insiders pointed out that Hema Malini, Preneet Kaur and Ranjit Chautala were party candidates at the age of 75 or above but what provoked the leadership, they said, was that Kejriwal had aimed to put a question mark on the central plank of the party’s campaign – a vote for PM Modi’s “guarantee”.

Even as Kejriwal alleged that Modi was trying to inaugurate a “one-nation-one-leader” polity by trying to stifle opposition – an argument that other Opposition leaders have also made – he took it further saying Modi was trying to undermine other BJP leaders too.

This was an echo of how Modi has, for years, claimed Congress leaders from Sardar Patel to even P V Narasimha Rao while training his guns solely on the Nehru-Gandhi family. Likewise, Kejriwal sought to attack only Modi and Shah distancing other BJP leaders from the duo.

Kejriwal’s claim that Modi, if he returns to power, would also replace Yogi Adityanath as UP CM is being interpreted as a move to add to the disquiet among a section of Rajput voters of the BJP in UP and Bihar.

There have been some protests by Rajputs in western UP over their diminished representation in ticket distribution in the early phases in UP, apart from clear signs of Rajput anger in north and western India over Parshottam Rupala’s statement that was interpreted as running down the community.

Both UP and Bihar, where polls are spread over all seven phases, have Rajput voters. Two Rajput leaders from UP, Rajnath Singh and Adityanath himself, rushed to counter Kejriwal.

Saying that the “entire propaganda” of the Opposition had failed, Yogi Adityanath accused it of making a “desperate” attempt to target the BJP using the “excuse of Modiji’s age.”

Adityanath asserted that Modi was the leader of 140 crore Indians, adding, “Phir ek baar Modi sarkar; baar baar Modi sarkar (Modi government once again; Modi government again and again).”

So far, the BJP’s campaign has revolved around a one-leader campaign. Kejriwal’s broader national messaging went hand in hand with a focused outreach to that chunk of Delhi voters which votes for Modi in the Lok Sabha and Kejriwal in the Assembly polls.

Earlier, in Hyderabad, Shah said that “Narendra Modi has 23 years of experience – as CM and PM – and he has ensured development of the country.” He added: “He has worked tirelessly for the upliftment of the poor. Today, internal security has improved; we have a tight grip over terrorism and Naxalites. On the one hand, we have a PM who comes from a poor background, a tea seller, and on the other hand we have leaders born with a silver spoon in their mouth, products of dynasty politics.”

He also said that the interim bail to Kejriwal is not a clean chit. “The Supreme Court has given interim bail to Kejriwal only for election campaign purposes. On June 2, he has to surrender before the investigation agency. If Kejriwal thinks this is SC giving him a clean chit, I think his understanding of law is at fault,” he said.

On Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remarks that Pakistan is a nuclear power, Shah said, “BJP’s stand is that PoK belongs to India and it is a part of India. His (Aiyar’s) remark that Pakistan has atom bombs is deplorable.”

He dismissed allegations that if BJP returns to power for a third time, it would remove all reservations, and said that the party only wants to remove religion-based reservation in Telangana.

He accused the government of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy in Telangana of handing over the steering wheel to the Owaisis. “They are indulging in appeasement politics. They oppose CAA and they want to allow Rohingyas to come into the country,” Shah said.

On the Opposition, Shah said, “These people’s greed to protect their minority vote bank is so strong that they even question the surgical strike. After the US and Israel, India is the only country that, when someone harms its defence forces, it goes into enemy territory and strikes. Revanth Reddy may admit this in private but he cannot say that in public for obvious reasons.”