The pictures were in contrast to how Rahul Gandhi landed in Raebareli virtually at the last minute on May 3 to file his nomination from the Congress pocket borough.
Allies Missing
Such suspense was built over it that a major constituent of the INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, was missing from the nomination filing event of Rahul Gandhi. No other INDIA partner was present either.
In fact, Rahul Gandhi’s nomination filing turned out to be more of a family affair with Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Robert Vadra, and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge present in the collector’s room.
What was worse was that none of them went for the nomination filing of Congress’s Amethi candidate, Kishori Lal Sharma, who had to do the exercise in the presence of a few junior party leaders from the constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi chose not to contest from Amethi, a seat he had held for three terms.
Another interesting comparison is from May 10 when Ajay Rai, the Congress president in UP and the party’s Varanasi candidate against PM Modi, filed his nomination virtually with no support. Neither the Gandhis nor Kharge were by Rai’s side when he filed his nomination from arguably the most important seat in Uttar Pradesh. Rai led a bicycle rally to the Varanasi collectorate, with local leaders to file his nomination, an event that went unnoticed.
Modi The ‘Showstopper’
The same Varanasi collectorate was abuzz with activity on Tuesday when PM Modi landed here to file his nomination, flanked by union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president JP Nadda, and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
If that was not enough, the BJP got all its major NDA leaders to Varanasi to be present and all of them accompanied Modi as he came out after filing his papers, in a big show of strength for the alliance in the country.
Key NDA allies like Eknath Shinde, Praful Patel, N Chandrababu Naidu, Pawan Kalyan, Chirag Paswan, Pashupathi Nath Paras, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Anupriya Patel, and Jayant Chaudhary were present to showcase how the NDA was united in these elections. This was much in contrast to the INDIA allies being absent from Congress nomination filing events in Raebareli and Amethi. The BJP is now asking if they were even invited by the Congress at all.
The BJP further ensured a caste balance and a “common man image” when it came to the three proposers for PM Modi’s nomination: Brahmin face Pandit Ganeshwar Shastri, OBC face Baijnath Patel, and Dalit face Sanjay Sonkar.
Overall, while Modi displayed his quintessential confidence in Varanasi both through his big roadshow and nomination filing event, the Congress camp came across as unsure and hesitant when it came to Raebareli and Amethi. There can’t be a bigger reading of the 2024 elections.
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