THE RAVAN JIBE

The very first time Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge addressed an election rally in Gujarat, he came up with the “Ravan” jibe against the Prime Minister. At a rally in Ahmedabad, Kharge commented that “We see your (Modi’s) face in corporation elections, MLA elections and MP elections, everywhere...do you have hundred heads like Ravan?” This is what the BJP was waiting for, as it’s not easy to fight a 27-year anti-incumbency on development alone. The party was looking for an emotional connect and what better glue to bind the voter in Gujarat than the PM’S name ? It took a while but the intrepid Amit Malviya of the BJP’S IT cell managed to highlight the issue as an insult to the PM and thereby to the Gujarati asmita. Later, the PM too picked up the theme during his rallies. While one is not quite sure if this will become an election issue, it has certainly ensured one thing—the presence of Mallikarjun Kharge in the election campaign. After all if the Congress fares badly it is Kharge who will have to take the flak, so he may as well take the ownership of the campaign. Interestingly, before the rise of the Modi-shah BJP, Kharge had never lost an election. He was known as the “solillada sardara” (leader without defeat). But in 2019, he lost the Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka to the BJP’S Umesh Jadhav. In his Gujarat campaign, Kharge also raised another point—about him being a Dalit. This was targeted to the marginalized voter whom the BJP is also trying to woo with the PM’S OBC card. And it has also ensured that the Gujarat election ends on a BJP vs Congress note (it began on a BJP vs AAP campaign).