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By India Today News Desk: “This will be a turning point in Karnataka elections,” claimed BJP MP and BJP Yuva Morcha National President Tejasvi Surya on Thursday.
Tejasvi Surya was reacting to the remarks made by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
“Modi is like a poisonous snake. If you think it’s poison or not and you lick it, you’re dead. You might think: is this poison? Modi is a good man. He’s given it and we’ll see it. Then you’re fully sleeping if you lick it,” Kharge said in Karnataka’s Gadag during a poll campaign.
What came as a surprise was the need for a personal attack against the prime minister. That too, at a time when political commentators said the Congress had an edge over the BJP in the upcoming Karnataka election.
Because, time and again, it has been observed that Congress has never benefitted after personal attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
CONGRESS AND PERSONAL ATTACKS ON MODI
Be it Congress’s “Maut Ka Saudagar” in 2007 or “Chowkidar Chor Hai” in 2019, the party wasn’t rewarded by the electorate.
The Congress had an advantage over the incumbent BJP as Gujarat was headed for Assembly polls in 2007. Then Congress President Sonia Gandhi attacked then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and called him “maut ke saudagar” in a reference to the 2002 Godhra riots. Modi used it to his advantage and the BJP returned to office in Gujarat with a thumping majority.
Modi was leading the BJP campaign for the 2014 general election when Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar used his ‘chai wala’ barb against him. The BJP used it to its advantage, creating among others the ‘Chai pe Charcha’ campaign. The BJP overthrew the Congress-led UPA and came to power at the Centre.
It was Mani Shankar Aiyar again. This time ahead of the Gujarat Assembly election in 2017. He called PM “neech aadmi”. Modi, the prime minister now, turned Aiyar’s remark into a casteist slur and generated a wave of sympathy for the BJP. The BJP returned to power in Gujarat.
During the 2019 general election campaign, then Congress chief Rahul Gandhi resorted to “chowkidar chor hail” jibe against PM Modi. That was a reference to the Rafale deal, in which the Congress alleged there was corruption. The BJP countered Rahul’s attack with ‘main bhi chowkidar’ campaign and returned to office after a landslide victory.
Mallikarjun Kharge’s remarks on Thursday weren’t the first against PM Modi. He had, in 2022, called him “Ravan”. That came during the Gujarat assembly election, which, again, the BJP won.
KHARGE’S LATEST REMARK AND KARNATAKA POLLS
Mallikarjun Kharge’s “poisonous snake” remarks, for which he apologised later, was seen by many as part of the series of personal attacks by Congress against PM Modi.
But the timing surprised many, as such attacks never paid electoral dividends to the Congress, and are perceived to have hurt its chances.
That is probably what BJP MP and BJP Yuva Morcha National President Tejasvi Surya was hinting at on Thursday.
“This will be a turning point in the Karnataka elections. People here do not accept crass personal comments against anyone, let alone our most loved PM. Just wait and watch how the last nail on the Congress coffin will be hammered on May 10th,” Tejashvi Surya tweeted.
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