BJP will remind voters of Vajpayee legacy
The legacy of Vajpayee will be showcased the most in the state of Uttar Pradesh. A medical university will be built across 50 acres in Lucknow in the name of Vajpayee. A hospital will be built in Balrampur.
The BJP will use the legacy of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to reach out to voters who so far have stayed away from the party or are “fence sitters”.
Party strategists, who have been involved in the deliberations post the death of Vajpayee, said that his message, his ashes and his face would be spread across cities and rivers in the run-up to the 2019 elections, which the BJP, according to some political observers, will have to fight hard to win.
“He was a crowd puller and he will always be an attractive figure. From the social media to city squares, the legacy of Vajpayeeji will be put across for the voters to see what a great leader he was. The immense grief that came out on the social media, especially from the young and the teenagers, after he passed away, has totally surprised us. Unlike the Congress, which abandoned the legacy of PV.. Narasimha Rao, we will not shy away from capitalising on the legacy and the good work that Vajpayeeji did for the country,” a party strategist based in an eastern state said. The legacy of Vajpayee, as per the BJP’s plan, will be showcased the most in the state of Uttar Pradesh which is very crucial for the BJP or for any party when it comes to the general elections. UP sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. Sources said that the UP state government headed by Yogi Adityanath has already decided to build a medical university spread across 50 acres in Lucknow that will be in the name of Vajpayee. A hospital is also being opened in Balrampur district after him. Apart from that, four memorial places in the name of Vajpayee will be built in Bateshwar, Agra which is the birthplace of Vajpayee; in Kanpur from where he did his graduation; Balrampur from where he was elected as an MP for the first time; and in Lucknow where he spent a major part of his life. The Yogi government has also decided to name the proposed Bundelkhand Expressway as “Atal Path”. The expressway will pass through Bateshwar.
In Chhattisgarh, CM Raman Singh has already announced that the new capital that is being built will be in the name of Vajpayee. The name of Bilaspur Central University too will be changed to Atal Bihari Vajpayee University and a railway route is being renamed after him. The name of Rajnandgaon Medical College will be renamed after Va- jpayee. A new Central Park, which is being constructed beside the collectorate in Raipur, will be named Atal Park. The state government has also decided to form a police battalion that will be known as “Pokhran Battalion”.
In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, two memorials are going to be constructed in Gwalior and Bhopal which will be named after the former PM. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has also decided to name the Global Skill Park being built in Bhopal after Vajpayee. Chouhan has also announced that he would request the Railway Ministry to rename Habibganj railway station in Bhopal after Vajpayee and to rename the AIIMS-Bhopal after Vajpayee. The BJP leaders, when they were in the Opposition, had been strong critics of the Congress party naming hospitals and other institutions after the members of the Gandhi family.
The BJP will also spread the ashes of Vajpayee across multiple rivers in multiple states in an event that will be well promoted.
“We are not doing anything wrong. Vajpayee was a leader of whom every Indian is proud of. We want every Indian to see and feel his greatness and understand that the BJP is a party that nurtured and promoted leaders like Vajpayeeji who reached the top without any dynastic help. Definitely we are sure that once the new voters and fence sitters see and read about Vajpayee, they will come with us,” the party functionary stated. As Rahul Gandhi entered the New Academic Building at the London School of Economics (LSE) he shook hands with everyone seated in the front row. He was escorted by Sam Pitroda and Manish Tewari. He has been in London talking to Parliament, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the LSE. After the warm welcome by Shirley Pearce, Head of Council at LSE, and joint host Sanam Arora the Founder/Chairperson of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU), Mukulika Banerjee the Director of LSE South Asia Centre posed a few questions to Gandhi before only students from LSE, Warwick, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester and London Universities were allowed to ask questions. Rahul Gandhi opened the conversation with some insights about how people developed different perspectives and how differing perspectives were valuable. He warned about possible conflicts building up in Western Europe, United States and China. He said India was too big, too intelligent and too refined to take sides. Banerjee asked what else he brought to the job as Congress president apart from his family name. Gandhi referred to the violence he had experienced in his life, which had made him a compassionate person who reached out and listened to people; he said wanted to help the poor and the persecuted.
Banerjee asked him about his vision for social justice, secularism and economic policy. He said he viewed all these as related and attributed India’s transformation to date to the modernising impulse of 100 years ago, that he would like to expand. Then his answer steered the conversation towards farmers and agriculture. The farmers needed a minimum support price and farm loan waiver for protection against flood or drought, he said. He accused the BJP government of not appreciating the Indian farmer. On secularism he suggested the nation could not progress with exclusion.
On economics he identified the job-crisis as the problem—there were not enough jobs and the government was in denial. He suggested it can be solved through SMEs, revitalising agriculture, infrastructure and building low cost houses.
Banerjee asked for a SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) analysis of the Congress. Gandhi said the 2019 elections would be a straightforward BJP vs the entire Opposition. He said there was a feeling that