Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh appears to be ‘at home’ in Jharkhand when it comes to campaigning for the Assembly elections.
He has spent at least nine days in Jharkhand since the campaigning picked up, addressing over 30 rallies. Compared with his hectic electioneering in Jharkhand, he was said to have campaigned for only three days in Jammu & Kashmir.
Besides Singh, BJP president Amit Shah is the only senior leader who has spent a week in Jharkhand and will be visiting Santhal Pargana alongwith film star-turned-politician Hema Malini, on Tuesday. He has addressed as many as 36 rallies so far.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the most sought after campaigner, has addressed eight rallies and concluded his campaign for ‘Mission Jharkhand’ on Monday at Dumka and Barhait, both seats being contested by Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
Besides a relentless media campaign, the BJP has deployed around 20 leaders from Delhi and Bihar, including two Chief Ministers, to seek votes and regain power with full majority. They included Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piysuh Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar, Raman Singh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Ram Vilas Paswan, Arun Jaitley, Manoj Tiwari, Shahnawaz Hussain, Dharmendra Pradhan, Sushma Swaraj, Smriti Irani, Uma Bharti, Giriraj Singh and Sushil Modi.
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Home Minister Rajnath ‘at home’ in J’khand
Among the State leaders, Arjun Munda is said to have addressed maximum number of well-orchestrated rallies.
Interestingly, Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwary, thanks to his connect with the people of Bihar and UP origin, addressed as many as 39 rallies, followed by BJP’s Muslim face Shahnawaz Hussain, who visited at least 31 places across the State to address public meetings.
According to a BJP strategist, the Home Minister had no inhibition in going to several areas vulnerable to Maoist threat. In fact, on November 26 the helicopter in which he was travelling lost its coordinates close to a former Maoist stronghold, leading to the cancellation of a campaign rally. Singh was to address a rally at Badajamda within Jagannathpur constituency, close to the Saranda forest. However, the helicopter circled the venue for about 15 minutes and flew away without landing.
“The demand for Amit Shah being the BJP’s national president, was quite natural from the party cadres. But Rajnath Singh’s rallies were planned given his close associations with the State for over 10 years and his one-to-one relations with the grass-roots leaders,” pointed out a BJP leader. “Above all, he happens to be ‘damad’ (son-in-law) of Jharkhand (his in-laws hail from Palamu),” he added.
Incidentally, Rajnath was instrumental in picking up Arjun Munda as Chief Minister in 2003 when the BJP had faced the first crisis and allies wanted to replace Babulal Marandi.
“Ever since 2003, he has played a key role in guiding and supervising the party in Jharkhand. In fact, he was incharge of Jharkhand BJP when after 2005 elections, the then Governor Syed Sibtey Razi had administered oath to JMM’s Shibu Soren, who did not enjoy the number strength, only to be rebuked by the Supreme Court,” pointed out former MP and party spokesman Ajay Maroo.