LS polls: Helicopters are as big a draw as star campaigners in Rajasthan

On a hot, sunny afternoon, as the crowd at a BJP rally in Samdari village — near the textile town of Balotra in Rajasthan’s Barmer district — listened to local party leaders, godmen and the party’s candidate Kailash Chaudhary repeating praises of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s various schemes for rural areas, including the Ujjwala Yojana for LPG connections and the rural electrification, it appeared increasingly disinterested.  

The star campaigner at the rally, held on April 25, was Rajasthan ex-CM Vasundhara Raje, whose helicopter was still a few hours away. The local leaders on stage were trying to keep the crowd interested, and they seemed to be failing. All the chants of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and the invocations of how Modi taught Pakistan a lesson or got electricity to the last house in the village drew more cheers from BJP workers than the villagers.  

When a few local reporters and this correspondent went into the crowd and asked the women, who were sitting separately from the men, whether they had received LPG cylinders and electricity, the answer was an overwhelming “no”. 

In a relief for the BJP leaders, the crowd of less than 1,000 swelled to 1,200 when Raje’s helicopter landed two hours later. Four days later, at Kotputli, at the other end of the state, Congress President Rahul Gandhi was leading a rally in support of the  party’s Jaipur Rural candidate Krishna Poonia. Also in attendance were Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot. Gandhi just about managed to whip up a crowd of 60,000 people, partly because his speech delivery wasn’t as effective as that of the person he is attacking. Apart from ‘Chowkidar Chor Hain’, he exhorted the crowd to shout ‘Anil (Ambani) chor hain’, ‘Nirav chor hain’, ‘Mehul chor hain’ and ‘Vijay (Mallya) chor hain’. 

But, once Gandhi and other leaders left, sections of the crowd intermittently chanted “Modi Modi Modi”. No one tried to stop them, not even Congress workers. They were rather busy watching the helicopter take off.