PARALLEL PITCH

Ramdev’s Mission Modi shadow campaign is on a roll

Ramdev will travel through 100 Lok Sabha constituencies before poll day.

The yoga guru plans to visit several families a day during the course of his travels.

Teams of 500 followers each in 600 districts will canvas 500 families per worker, touching base with 250,000 families in every district.

Teams will distribute five million flags, badges, scarves each, besides other propaganda material.

Around 1,000 motorcycles and 300 cars, besides those owned by Ramdev’s followers, have been deployed for campaign teams.

Over 500 district headquarter offices of the Patanjali Yog Samiti have been beefed up with computers and colour printers.

The Baba’s popular Yoga Shibirs will turn into campaign venues.

No campaign expenses will lead to BJP’s door. The Baba has successfully tried this out in the recent Assembly polls.

Since elections were announced, Ramdev doesn’t make direct references to Narendra Modi or his political opponents. Instead, they are all referred to in easy-to-comprehend metaphors, legally dissociating his effort from BJP’s campaign for the eyes of the Election Commission.

Ramdev’s supporters expect their network to help BJP and its allies win eight to 10 seats in Odisha, five to six each in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, five to seven in Assam and three each in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.