Nagpur: With only 24 hours left for public campaign left for the state assembly elections, the super Sunday saw both the BJP-led Mahayuti and the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi making the last hurrah to woo the voters in Vidarbha , especially its gateway Nagpur. Both the rival combinations are focussing on Vidarbha from where they are contesting maximum seats.
The Congress move to hold a Priyanka Gandhi Vadra roadshow around Badkas Chowk in the Mahal where the RSS is headquartered, saw very tense moments as the BJP workers waiving party flags came in direct confrontation with Congress workers waiving tricolour flag. The Priyanka show in the city was a big draw as compared to the BJP MP Kangana Rawat’s who drew modest crowds.
Pryanka Gandhi Vadra at roadshow that drew huge crowds in Musilm areas and RSS citadel on Super Sunday
| SUNNY SHENDE
Both the roadshows were clearly moves by the two combinations to further consolidate the process of polarisation of voters—on the caste lines by the MVA and on grounds of religion by the BJP. The Congress chose to put on display a waving, smiling Priyanka first in West Nagpur constituency’s Muslim dominated areas. Starting from Awasthi Nagar the Congress juggernaut moved through Zafar Nagar to Ahbab Colony. She then moved on to Badkas Chowk, citadel of the RSS.
Earlier in the day, Priyanka first reached Wadsa in Gadchiroli district to campaign for the party candidates. The tribal district in last two years has witnessed great strides in mining sector and steel manufacturing for the first time despite stiff opposition from the Naxalite movement active in the district.
Addressing a large poll rally, Priyanka said the Congress and her great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru brought development setting up large public sector factories across the nation in without bias towards any one state. “ Sadly, the Modi government at the Centre is diverting from Maharashtra big investments like microchip plant . Investment worth Ra 10 lakh crore which could have provided 8 lakh jobs to Maharashtra’s youth has been deprived to the state, “ she claimed.
Priyanka arrived for Nagpur about an hour behind schedule, yet was greeted by large and enthusiastic crowds that a Gandhi family member always draws here. Her mother was here back in 2004. Now the daughter has stolen the show in a maiden act here. The Kangna Ranaut show was a much low- key affair.
On the other hand, a decked-up Kangana used her film star glamour quotient to woo the voters in Nagpur Central areas in the morning and then moved on to West Nagpur in the afternoon where she travelled between Law College square and Bajaj Nagar inhabited by a cosmopolitan mix. But it was peaceful.
Kangna Ranaut’s road show, not a big draw but message conveyed | SUNNY SHENDE
The polarisation process that started with Narendra Modi’s call for ‘Ek hai to safe hai’ call and UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s slogan of ‘Batenge to katenge’ was also completed with the BJP- RSS coming into action aggressively invoking “dharma yudha’ and ‘dharma-hit’ to neutralise the MVA narratives. The call for ‘vote jihad’ by Islamic scholar Maulana Khalilur Rehman Sajjad Nom. and fatwas to vote for the MVA and boycott those who failed to do so, could prove counter- productive for the MVA as it made no effort to distance from it.
On the other, a clear RSS hand was visible when the small (6 cm by 9 cm) voter slip dropped at voters doorsteps gave a loud and clear message to vote 100 % in “Rashtra-hit and Dharma-hit” (to protect nation and the religion).
