BJP’s new campaign model AAP-inspired

In some ways distinct from even other traditional parties, the BJP’s election rallies have been marked by the erecting of conspicuous and impressive sets and podiums, adorned sometimes with Hindu motifs, on which are gathered local party grandees (even if they happen to be mutually warring), besides the national figures who arrive to galvanise the local scene.

A near perfect example of this was seen in Ranchi last December where the stage was made to look like Parliament House to which were brought thousands from the Jharkhand hinterland (reminiscent of rent-a-crowd), as BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi held forth while local party leaders bickered. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal was being sworn in as Delhi’s CM at the Ramlila Grounds in the national capital at about the same time. To this function arrived thousands — on a strictly voluntary basis, and having paid their own Metro fares. The contrast between the old and the new ways could hardly have been more glaring.

Since then, the BJP, in its push for pre-eminence in the Lok Sabha polls, appears to have added new elements to its campaign repertoire. This has been evident most recently in Varanasi, one of the two seats from which Mr Modi is contesting the Lok Sabha poll.

Under the leadership of the Gujarat leader, the BJP has adopted wholesale AAP’s tactic of holding “roadshows”. Mr Kejriwal’s roadshows in Gujarat that pushed him to the forefront of public consciousness in this Parliament election.  Copying AAP’s roadshow model by the BJP is a subtle shift in the sub-culture of political mobilisation by the Hindutva party.

A roadshow may be thought of as a “padyatra on wheels”. Traditionally, poorer parties have made extensive use of the “padyatra” (campaigning on foot), as they lacked resources. In some ways, like the padyatra, the roadshow helps to connect with people without the need for transporting them to a central hub. The importance of AAP’s mobilisation techniques had been commented on by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi also after AAP’s eye-catching performance in the Delhi Assembly election. Mr Gandhi, like Mr Modi, has also resorted to roadshows.

Mr Modi copying a poorer party’s campaign style doesn’t, however, mask the difference between the two. Mr Modi has used the roadshow in Varanasi to malign the Election Commission, almost as a show of force against a key constitutional body.