Three phases of Lok Sabha elections are over and the BJP has changed its poll strategy quietly. An election that started with Ram Mandir being the central theme was followed by ‘Muslim Quota’ in Karnataka — an issue Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been consistently raising in his election rallies.
However, as the election is about to enter the fourth phase, the BJP has smartly changed gears. Instead of staying with the “Congress did not attend January 22 Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha”, BJP masterfully began making noise around reservation. The reason is clear: polling is entering seats that are the heartland of Mandal politics.
RAM TO RESERVATION
It was early April and PM Modi was addressing an election rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit. Hitting out at the Congress, he said: “The Congress made several efforts so that the Ram temple is not constructed. But when the people of the country made such a beautiful temple by contributing every penny and when the temple people forgave all your (Congress’) sins and invited you for the ‘pran pratishtha’, you insulted Lord Ram by rejecting the invitation and expelled leaders, who attended it, for six years.” Ever since, BJP’s top leadership — including Home Minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda — have been harping on the same note.
But the BJP smoothly shifted tact to reservation, choosing the issue of Muslim quota in Congress-ruled Karnataka. Addressing a rally in Zaheerabad some time back, PM Modi vowed that as long as “he is alive, he will not allow the Indian Constitution-mandated reservations for the SC/STs and BCs to be distributed to Muslims at any cost”.
The first opposition casualty was Lalu Prasad Yadav whose party RJD, while in power with JDU, brought India’s first caste census. He stepped into BJP’s trap by defending religion-based quota, saying: “Reservation toh milna chahiye Musalmano ko, poora (Muslims must get full reservation)”.
BJP’s campaigner-in-chief didn’t lose any time to target the INDIA bloc. “He (Prasad) is saying Muslims should get reservation, and not just reservation, he says Muslims should get full reservation. What does this mean? This means they want to snatch away reservations from SC, ST and OBC communities and give it to Muslims.”
NEHRU RESURRECTED, PITRODA BROUGHT BACK
As the INDIA bloc failed to counter BJP’s new poll narrative, government sources cited how India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was also against the idea of reservation. They cited an old newspaper clipping that read, “Inaugurating an all-India ex-criminal tribes conference here yesterday, Mr Nehru said that he was against the reservation of jobs for members of the Scheduled Tribes because it tended to create an inferior complex in them”.
NEWSPAPER CLIPPING
The Congress, meanwhile, was trying to get out of the controversy created by Sam Pitroda through his racist remarks — a faux pas that forced him to step down as the Head of the Overseas Congress. Sensing an opportunity, BJP unofficially released another dated footage of Pitroda where he is seen strongly advocating against any reservations in premiere education institutes like Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Management (IIMs).
The BJP took to X and posted: “The stance of Sam Pitroda, Rahul Gandhi’s mentor and political advisor, against reservations in IITs and IIMs, confirms their disdain for the marginalised. However, the Congress is unreasonably enthusiastic in extending reservation to Muslims, based on religion, in violation of the Constitution.”
While the Opposition had the first-mover benefit in suggesting the BJP’s real intention for ‘400 paar’ was to change the Constitution and undo reservation benefits, the BJP — as of today — seems to have minimised the damage. Instead, it has turned the tables on the opposition bloc on the same issue just as the election enters ‘Mandal’ heartland.
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