The sacred city of Amritsar turned into a fortress on Friday, as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi came here to address a rally, attended by roughly 20,000 people.
Amritsar was Modi's last stop in a day of packed Punjab campaign, ahead of the April 30 election in the state. Modi's rally might well have been the final clincher for the high-stake seat of Amritsar, which is witnessing a tough fight between former chief minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh of the Congress and BJP's Arun Jaitley. While the verdict is split on who will take the seat, Modi called Jaitley a hard to find "diamond" and even more competent than himself, while appealing to people to vote for his party colleague, who's also a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.
"You can expect much more from Jaitley than from Modi," the Gujarat chief minister told a cheering crowd amid thousands of flags depicting saffron lotus. Modi hard-sold Jaitley to his constituency for his "commitment to development, integrity, character, intelligence and cooperative nature". Also, if Gujarat model is seen as successful, Jaitley has a major role to play, said Modi.
The rally also acquired a zing with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's half-brother, Daljeet Singh, joining BJP earlier in the day. "We welcome him wholeheartedly," said Modi. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Jaitley were also on the dais.
Stating that Indians have already decided that mother-son duo (Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi) government is going, Modi, who turned up three hours late in Amritsar at the end of five-stop campaigning across Punjab, a state with no clear wave so far, offered the formula of five Ts for the region, making it a point to say that T has nothing to do with him being a tea seller earlier. The five Ts, also in the manifesto, are talent, trade, technology, tourism and tradition. Promising jobs to the young and elimination of the drug mafia, the two big issues plaguing Punjab, Modi said, "These are not empty promises, but it's my agenda to deliver." A train joining Amritsar and Patna Sahib, security for women, boost to cross-border trade, modernising the city are among the other promises Modi spoke about.
While around 4,000 policemen guarded the roads across the city, helicopters provided aerial security.
Reports suggested that Congress President Sonia Gandhi was not allowed to do a roadshow in Punjab for security reasons, as the entire force was pressed into action for Modi. But a Congress insider said Sonia is not well and that there's no confirmation on her rallies. Rahul Gandhi is slated to come for a rally in Bhatinda on April 28, at the end of canvassing. Prime Minister Singh is not coming to Punjab at all.
Although Amritsar and some other prominent constituencies have witnessed star action, both Bollywood and cricket (Poonam Dhillon, Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Shetty among them), it was not seen on Friday. "Modiji is himself a star. He doesn't need any prop," said a BJP loyalist.
In a rally that caught the attention of worldwide media, cameras flashed like Modi was a rock star, appropriately turbaned in the Sikh city. But on the streets, among big and small businesses and professionals in towns such as Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Bhatinda, the resentment against the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is strong over issues such as unemployment, widespread drug abuse, land and sand mafia. That might hurt the BJP and, among others, Jaitley -seen as the future finance minister - is the buzz. But Jaitley is confident of an easy win and a BJP-led government.
As the voting date draws closer, people are putting their heads together to discuss the pros and cons. A salesman at an upmarket joint said, "It has been a 50-50 battle between the BJP-SAD and the Congress.
But if till Thursday there was a tilt towards the Congress, from Friday I am noticing that people are getting more supportive of the BJP now, as they are tired of the policy paralysis of the Congress-led UPA government."
But a Congress backer argued: "People in Punjab are scared to voice their opinion freely and it is in the ballot that they will show their choice."
Congress sources dismissed the talk of a BJP wave as a hype, especially in Punjab.
In the previous Lok Sabha election, the BJP got only one seat out of the 13 in the fray. That one seat was won by popular cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, who failed to get a ticket this time. That is another regret that the people of Amritsar have - the BJP dropping a winner from a constituency where Amarinder has a strong base. "This is a Sikh seat, the BJP should not have sacrificed Jaitley here," a rice exporter pointed out.
A source in the Congress said about nine to 10 seats out of 13 will go to the Congress.
