A month-long wheelchair marketing campaign of chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been marked by a volley of direct assaults towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi and name-calling, a lot in contrast to the technique Arvind Kejriwal adopted to win Delhi final yr.
It was on March 10 that Banerjee sustained her foot harm in Nandigram throughout campaigning. Two days later, she was launched from a hospital in Kolkata. And then she started her marketing campaign in a wheelchair.
Since then, she has sharpened her assaults on the PM. As she completes a month within the wheelchair, she has even accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of making an attempt to kill her. But will this translate to a bonus for Banerjee in these elections? History says in any other case, with the BJP believing the wheelchair marketing campaign has truly “restricted” the CM fairly than incomes her sympathy.
Politicians corresponding to Kejriwal have learnt it the arduous manner that attacking Modi personally, or making it a direct showdown with the PM, is counterproductive. The Delhi CM as soon as infamously referred to as the PM “a liar” after demonetisation. Kejriwal, nonetheless, prevented all assaults on the PM throughout final yr’s meeting elections in Delhi and fairly made his marketing campaign all concerning the BJP’s lacking CM face, and his growth agenda.
In reality, the file exhibits that PM Modi encashes on such assaults on him, as he famously did throughout the 2019 normal elections when Rahul Gandhi coined the slogan “Chowkidaar Chor Hai” on the Rafale deal. But the opposition chief was answered with the BJP’s mega marketing campaign of “Mein Bhi Chowkidaar”. In West Bengal, too, with Banerjee calling Modi names and saying the state doesn’t wish to see his face, Modi has raised the problem in each public assembly. “Why is Didi (as Banerjee is popularly called) abusing me? It is because her frustration of loss is showing,” Modi has been saying.
A senior BJP chief instructed News18, “Narendra Modi is a cult figure in popularity and by abusing him, you end up upsetting voters who voted for him in the Lok Sabha elections but could have voted for a CM (from another camp) in the state elections if such attacks were not made.”
A Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief argued that the CM had to answer the “virulent campaign launched by the PM…and the deeply problematic remark of ‘Didi, o Didi’ at rallies”. Unlike Kejriwal, Banerjee has not caught to easily questioning who the CM face within the BJP is, and has walked into the BJP’s entice by making it a direct combat between her and Modi, the BJP chief claimed.
Wheelchair Sympathy?
Banerjee has been in a wheelchair for a month now, holding rallies and highway exhibits in the identical in what critics name an obvious try and get sympathy from voters, particularly ladies voters who’ve been loyal to her. However, the BJP feels this has not introduced the TMC any dividends. “Her wheelchair campaign has, in fact, stolen her thunder and restricted her. Every politician has a particular style and Banerjee’s style was to pace up and down the stage, or walk into any village or shop…or speak freely to people. The wheelchair campaign has ended up restricting her,” a prime BJP chief stated. The CM has tried to compensate for a similar by being extra aggressive in her speeches and even throwing footballs into the gang from rally phases.
The jury is out on whether or not girl voters would persist with Banerjee given the assorted women-centric welfare schemes run by her and sympathise along with her over the harm she claims was brought about to her by the BJP. “The women support this time is mixed. While some women voters could remain with Mamata, many are upset over political violence in the state and are attracted towards the BJP. Our manifesto promises for women are also very big in scale,” a BJP chief stated. As for her harm, BJP leaders have demanded that her harm report be made public. “It is surprising that the injury has not healed even after a month,” a BJP chief remarked.
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