Bhopal Live: Modi warns 'Delhi Sultanate' against BJP 'aandhi'

4.20 pm: BJP is finally getting its act together? Towards the end of his speech, Modi predicted BJP ‘aandhi’ (storm) that will throw the Congress out of the country. While it is too early to believe it, one can say with some conviction that the BJP, after days of indecisiveness, is finally getting its act together. Something that was evident in the party’s strategy, as displayed in this Mahakumbh. The party, effectively, countered two strong allegations against them. One, that the party is divided by personal and hence cannot run a country. Two, Narendra Modi’s megalomaniac streak holds him from being a great, inclusive politician, forget being the PM of the country. With everyone from Advani, Chouhan and Swaraj singing undiluted praises for Modi and hailing him as their leader, BJP dealt with the first effectively. Also, his colleagues unabashed praises made sure that Modi didn’t have to say much to promote his own brand of developmental politics. Secondly, with Modi toning down his Gujarat and I-me-myself rhetoric significantly and going all out to praise fellow CMs Raman Singh and Chouhan, the party’s PM candidate also showed that he is as capable of inclusive politics conducive to national success. 4.10 pm: Modi’s political U-turn Congress leader Digvijaya Singh might just have to swallow his own words and with a lot of difficulty it seems. For someone who allegedly cannot ‘change his spots’, Modi turned entire dialogue him around by delivering a over 30 minute speech without a single direct mention of either Gujarat or his own achievements as a chief minister of the state. In fact, at the very outset, he called himself a ‘chhota sa karyakarta’ ( a low brow worker) and heaped praises on Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Chouhan. Though his sway on the party and its processes was evident (he spoke for a good 15 minutes more than anyone else on the stage), Modi took two steps back to prop his party and his colleagues up the ladder of national politics. In fact, in what could be a political masterstroke if it gets enough play, he even included allies in the BJP’s poll campaign narrative. He said that in the past five years, the states which have done extremely well in terms of development are states which have BJP governments and states which are run by BJP’s friends and allies. While one can’t be too sure if that is enough to please Nitish Kumar, this definitely, will go down in the book of Indian politics as a first. “The Congress is now being forced to talk about inclusive growth because Shivraj Chouhan has forced the Centre to take up the issue. Chouhan has shown the Centre what the inclusive growth is. And the Congress is relentlessly trying to scuttle the Sardar Sarovar Dam project in Gujarat – because MP will get 800 MW of free electricity and the Congress doesn’t want the state to prosper anymore.” He then engages the crowd directly and asks, “Will you help Mahatma Gandhi’s wish come true.” The crowd roars a ‘yes’. “How will you bring it true if you don’t even know what it is? Mahatma gandhi’s last wish was to rout Congress from the country. The Congress workers have resisted it for very long and now the responsibility of showing Congress the door lies with us,” he said. Calling the Congress, a ‘bhookhi’ (hungry) party which can never think beyond petty politics, Modi said that MP should make sure that this time around every poll booth is a ‘Congress-free’ poll booth. 3.57 pm: Modi takes Congress to the cleaners, again Peppering his speech with images of the Mughal royalty – Modi called the Congress government ‘Delhi ki Sultanate’ and ‘Dilli ki Shahenshah’, Modi launched into UPA-bashing.  Saying that Congress wants to thwart all developmental projects undertaken by the MP government, he regales the crowd with his colourful take-down of the Congress. Then he hollers, “Are you preparing for the elections? But, let me warn you, the polls  in MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Lok Sabha will not be fought by the Congress. They will be fought by the CBI, employed by the Congress.” 3.46 pm: Modi showers praise on Shivraj Chouhan One has to give the man his due credit for political brilliance. Prior to being nominated the PM, the biggest allegation against Modi was that he refused to look beyond Gujarat and was too full of his own achievements. However, this speech proves, how Modi had probably just saved his cards till he was officially asked to lead the party on the national front. In the past ten minutes, not a single mention of Gujarat, undiluted praise for Shivraj Chouhan and playing out the Congress BJP battle around  Madhya Pradesh – Modi shows why the BJP might not have erred in choosing him as their front runner. 3.25 pm: And… here comes sun! After the crowd has literally cracked their voices screaming for Narendra Modi, the star campaigner finally takes the stage in Bhopal. He starts his address by paying his respect to LK Advani. Full points for diplomacy! Modi begins his address by showering praises on Indian philosopher and economist Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay. He invokes the ideals of the founding father of the BJP and says that he is grateful to have worked with a party set up by him. People are heard hooting like they usually do at rock concerts. Modi says that a BJP government will follow the ideals of Pandit Deendayal. “When I used to work for the Sangathan I have visited all the constituencies.  Almost 30 years back, I had come to Madhya Pradesh just listen to Shivraj Chouhan. He echoed the philosophies of our founder and helped us understand them. Twenty five years later, when he came to power, I am happy to see that he has done everything he wanted to do for the poor in the state.” 3.00 pm: This is a Mahakumbh, says Shivraj Chouhan “Dekh lijiye, yeh hai hamara party (take a look, this is our party in its full force),” Chouhan tells the crowd. Calling the crowd a ‘jansamudra’, a ‘sea of humanity’, he thanks his supporters for all the love and affection that his state has showered him with. Commenting how the Congress is playing divisive politics, Chouhan presents his own A-Z of the Congress’ scam raaj. Just when we were thinking that he is merely reiterating Modi’s famous ‘damaad ka karobaar’ speech, Chouhan gives the damaad Vadra a miss on D and continues till K-L, naming every scam and scandal the Congress has been involved in. He also suggested that the Congress is using agencies like the CBI to terrorise other political parties and muffle voices of dissent. It has therefore become clear, who leads the way in the BJP at the moment. However, while Chouhan scores zero for originality, he should be given brownie points for research and effort. He pips Modi’s now-famous ABCD speech by a couple of points and seems to have a greater appetite for digging out the Congress’ many scams. The Commonwealth Games, the 2G, the Coalgate scam, the MGNREGA, failure of developmental policies all feature in his strong primer against the Congress. 2.40 pm: Venkaiah Naidu points at Chouhan’s achievements, Murli Manohar Joshi hails Narendra bhai’s leadership Venkaiah Naidu pointed out in his address how Madhya Pradesh was reeling under poverty when the Congress was in power. It was under Shivraj Singh Chouhan, he mentioned, that the state is back on tracks of development. However, Murli Manohar Joshi figured the crowd’s sentiments well and kept his address to mostly concern Narendra Modi. He hailed the big ‘Sangam’ of BJP and heralded the building of a great India under Modi. The crowd, as expected, broke into peels of applause. Sushma Swaraj invokes the Mahabharat to put the Congress-BJP battle in context. “Yeh chunao himmat ki hogi (this election will be fought on courage),” says Sushma Swaraj. She urges people to vote without fear and put the Congress in its place. Observing that Chouhan is a gentle,  polite CM, she canvasses spiritedly for him. 2.08 pm: The rally is still about BJP’s Lok Sabha fortunes Given that the BJP had cut a sad figure not too long ago, with all the infighting spilling out in the open, the Bhopal rally stuck to every lesson in the textbook of politics. A united party front, a strong pitch for voting for Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and robust UPA bashing - a united BJP seems to be getting almost everything right in this public address. Better still, taking cue from Chouhan, Modi also touched Advani’s feet on stage as the shutterbugs went crazy. Rajnath Singh, as expected, rooted his speech in the idea of garnering support for Modi. He pointed out how a recent suppprt suggested that a man named Bhavesh Patel had implicated RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in the Ajmer blast on the behest of Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. “You must have seen what the Congress is doing here. The man hs admitted that the Congress made him say false things about Bhagwat. Narendra Modi is the only answer now,” he declared. What he said following that was drowned by the loud roar from the crowd, which is breaking into deafening cheers the moment Narendra Modi is mentioned by any of the speakers. Chouhan, MP and the rest of the BJP seem to come only second in crowd priority to Modi and the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. If the Congress is watching this, they might want to fire Rahul Gandhi’s speech writer immediately and send him to a voice training institute! 1.45pm: Rajnath Singh praises Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s work in state BJP Chief Rajnath Singh is now addressing the rally in Bhopal, and is extolling BJP workers to do their bit to make sure that Modi goes on to become the country’s prime minister. " The BJP will win only when each worker works hard for the victory. Only then will Narendra bhai be PM," said Rajnath. Rajnath also went on to praise Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and the work he had done in Madhya Pradesh. “The good results of Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s are showing in the state,” he said. 1.40pm: Crowds chant Modi’s name as Advani’s speech winds down Even as Advani’s speech was still winding down, the crowd began chanting Modi’s name, nearly drowning out Advani’s voice as he spoke about the BJP and the collected crowds. 1.38pm: BJP not just a party of opposition anymore, says Advani LK Advani stepped on to the stage dais to introduce Narendra Modi, and applauded the assembled audience as the largest the world has ever seen, and also pointed out how the BJP is not just a “party of opposition” anymore. “The BJP has gone on to form governments in states, and will at the Centre as well,” he said. Motioning to the crowd, Advani brought attention to the huge political presence of the BJP. “This is a real mahakumbh,” he said to cheers. “I don’t think the world will have ever seen such a collection of supporters… Modi ji is not only on our national stage, but on an international level, is a real presence.” Advani went on to say that the BJP will give India a stable government at the Centre and in other states as well. 1.15 pm: Shivraj Chouhan plays perfect host Though there were whispers that Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Chouhan was not too pleased with the elevation of Modi before the MP polls, he doesn’t show too many signs of it on stage. Chouhan is seen playing the perfect host and garlanding the BJP leaders on the dais. In a massive show of strength, everyone from Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj to LK Advani and Rajnath Singh has turned up for the rally. The much hyped Modi-Advani meeting, however, failed to create any flutter. Advani walked up to the dais just when the uproar following Modi’s appearance was dying down and was quietly hurried to one end of the stage. Staying true to his new-found statesmanship, Modi made way for Advani, following him to his seat. However, no Kodak moments for the BJP yet. While the crowd lustily cheered every gesture Modi made, Shivraj Chouhan, on the face of it, looked quite happy playing the second fiddle, clapping and joining the crowd’s chorus. One can understand, from the veritable difference in crowd love towards Modi and the state’s CM, why Chouhan must have feared being outshone by the Gujarat CM in his own state. [caption id=“attachment_1132721” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi. Agencies.[/caption] 1.10 pm: BJP’s rally extraordinaire all set to start All eyes had been trained on the Bhopal rally which Narendra Modi is supposed to address today. Considered one of the biggest rallies in BJP’s poll itinerary, the buzz around it had been strong especially since it was reported that this rally has been designed to cement the Gujarat CM’s secular credentials. It had been reported that 50,000 Muslims had bee asked to turn up at the rally in their traditional attire and the attendees were charged Rs 5 to hear Modi speak. The rally is being held at the Jambooree Maidan and 7.5 lakh people have reportedly turned up for it, though there was space for just 5 lakh supporters. The icing on the rally cake will be spotting Modi and Advani together. The BJP president, one can guess, is doing a good job reconciling the warring factions for the state polls in Madhya Pradesh.