By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
The year 2018 is barely into the third week, but Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already started preparing general elections to be held in 2019. And to do the same, BJP has decided to focus on the first time voters.
The ‘Yuva Udghosh rally’, held in Varanasi on Saturday, was an attempt to change the mindset of young voters. Even though the rally participants were previously registered through BHIM app by collecting INR 20 from each of them, the BJP could not fulfil the estimated as well as projected number of participants in the rally.
According to various claims made by party’s various leaders, Yuva Udghosh rally was supposed to be attended by more than 17,000 people. But what it seemed that at the rally, the BJP could only manage to get around five thousand participants in the rally, whose age ranged between 17 years and 35 years.
Rudra Prakash Mishra, one of the several managers in the rally, told TwoCircles.net, “Party has tried hard to bring more and more people into the rally. But it seems that we are unable to meet our goal.”
Varanasi – as Loksabha constituency – comprises of five state assembly seats out of total eight. The seating arrangement for the participants in the rally was also divided into these five constituencies, giving a clear intention of BJP’s focus that it is seeking a way towards 2019 elections. But the rally – in which Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath and Mahendra Nath Pandey reached three hours late – soon witnessed the dilution of all the seating compartmentalisation due to the absence of enough participants.
Managers were seen trying to fill the seats by removing the constituency boards. People sitting in last rows were asked to come at front rows to “provide a good look to the media cameras”.
“Now we have to fill the seats as the many of the seats have been lying vacant,” said Mishra. “It will not look nice from the stage.”
Mishra’s fear was understandable. Soon after Yogi Adityanath reached the ground of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, he allegedly showed displeasure with the gathering and shared the same with the Neelkanth Tiwari, cabinet minister and MLA from Varanasi.
However, it was not only the crowd which was a disappointment. The speakers could not manage to address the issues focused on young generation voters. Mahendra Nath Pandey spent a considerable amount of time praising Yogi Adityanath and Amit Shah and just claimed that it is Bharatiya Janata Party which is determined to work for young India. Same is with Yogi Adityanath, founder and president of Hindu Yuva Vahini besides holding CM chair of the Uttar Pradesh, who claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party will provide jobs to over 1.45 lakhs youngsters for the future generation. However, both of the speakers could not last for more than 30 minutes collectively.
While Yogi Adityanath was claiming to have created jobs for the young individuals in state, a police officer from Gorakhpur told this reporter, “We still crave for more policemen. He should appoint more people in the force. But he is only making false claims.”
Amit Shah, BJP’s national president, took the mic immediately after Yogi Adityanath and continued the claims-filled rhetorics. Akash Kumar, a 19-year-old student, shared his thoughts with TwoCircles.net. He said, “I gave twenty rupees to participate in this rally and I received food worth more than hundred rupees.”
“But, frankly, I do not what I am doing here. I have my studies before me. They want me to manage polling booths. They promise to give me jobs. What kind of job a 19-year-old student will get?” asked Kumar, adding that he did not understand the full motive behind addressing the youngsters.
One of the police sources informed TwoCircles.net that Yogi Adityanath and Amit Shah deliberately delayed their arrival at the rally ground because they were being constantly provided with the inputs about the low gathering. This may explain the reason behind the fact that why a rally, which was supposed to run for more than three hours, ended up in just 40 minutes.
The crowd comprised of around five thousands people, but this reporter could not find a single woman. “It confirms the claim that BJP does not think about women,” said one of the journalists present at the spot.
When we inquired this with the party leaders and managers, we could not get any response. But one local leader, on the condition of anonymity, said, “Party did not approach women at all. We want ground staff to work at booth level. Right now, we are not in a phase of ‘getting into the people’s heart’.”
Sunil Kumar Mishra, the 21-year-old participant of the rally, said, “We are here for Modiji. We wish to deliver what can be achieved with a collective effort of party’s leadership and ground staff such as us.”
“But there are other problems like GST and Aadhar linking where Modi Ji should also listen to us,” said Mishra citing that his father suffered a loss in business due to the application of GST.
The start of the rally was marked by the protests held by National Students Union of India (NSUI) and Indian National Congress. Soon, all the protesting members got arrested and were sent to Varanasi’s police line until the completion of Yogi’s day at the city. Rajesh Mishra, ex-MP of Varanasi, and Ajai Rai, MLA of Pindra, were among those who got arrested.
When it comes to political rallies, BJP always had an upper hand, especially in Uttar Pradesh. During 2014 Lok Sabha election, Narendra Modi’s marked his win in the Varanasi by doing a huge roadshow on the roads of Varanasi, but Saturday’s rally in Varanasi – which is held few weeks after Gujarat election – has certainly raised various issues over which BJP has to work.
As soon we left the rally ground, we saw empty chairs were being stacked at the back of the curtains. When we asked the reason, the answer was obvious, “To get them out of the media’s camera”.