Prime Minister Narendra Modi's oratory skills, connect with the people and Bharatiya Janata Party's massive election machinery is capable of turning around the fortunes of the party in a matter of days. Modi commands a huge following and his rallies during Bihar Assembly election campaign have received tremendous response.
Faced with such a charismatic leader and trying to ensure his victory in the state for the third straight time, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has deployed an army of young volunteers belonging to Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) who have come up with some inexpensive and what they believe are effective tools to counter the Modi phenomena.
Contesting an election which is extremely close, both the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and Janata Dal United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress Mahagathbandhan have devised their own unique strategies. While NDA's plan has seen Modi rallies in all the crucial districts and massive advertisement blitz in the newspapers and radio, the Mahagathbandhan has gone for a low key campaign where volunteers have been trained to visit all the town and villages in a constituency.
According to one of the IPAC directors Vinesh Chandel, who worked with Modi during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Prime Minister is a skilled speaker and his massive rallies are organised in areas which can have maximum impact. To counter the effect of such rallies, Nitish Kumar's team has cleverly used BJP's rallies to sell the Mahagathbandhan's agenda.
"Since Modi is the Prime Minister, so security restrictions force people to get down from their vehicles almost 1 km from the rally venue and walk. We place our volunteers dressed in T-shirts with Nitish Kumar's photos, election symbols of all Mahagathbandhan parties and campaign material at strategic locations along the venue to the rally," says Chandel. According to him those going to the rally actually mob the volunteers for campaign materials and such initiatives help the Mahagathbandhan in countering the NDA using a programme that has not even been organised by it.
While the major part of the campaign involved door-to-door campaign wherein the volunteers spread Nitish Kumar's message across the towns, blocks, panchayat and village level, there is an increase in the intensity in areas where Modi rallies are organised.
The campaign includes Swabhiman Raths with audio-video system, volunteers touring villages on branded cycles wearing Nitish Kumar branded T-shirts, paidal sena (foot soldiers) and motorbike borne youngsters.
A lawyer by profession Chandel, who is presently in-charge of Siwan district in north Bihar, says Modi remains a big draw but many people come to his rallies only to see the three big Indian Air Force helicopters. "People in Bihar remembers how many PMs and presidents have visited the district. There are several thousands who attend his rally but we don't find the urge in them to vote for Modi. Many come to see the prime minister and helicopters. Even the crowd at his rally venue compared to Lok Sabha rallies is down by almost 50%," he claims.
In fact the people attending Modi's rallies are targeted not only when they are going for it but even when they are returning. A group of 30-40 volunteers distribute Nitish's seven nishchays (vows). "When people return from rallies we give them pamphlets that whatever Modi says can be declared jumlas (false promise) as soon as elections are over. We also organise bike rallies near the venue to ensure our visibility," he adds.
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