Vijay Kumar Singh was a 55-year-old BJP leader who died during a protest march by the party in Patna on Thursday. The BJP has blamed it on alleged police brutality. Singh, who was BJP’s Jehanabad district general secretary, like many, took to the streets of Patna protesting against the alleged scam in the recruitment in Bihar where JDU-RJD are in power.
But there seems to be a pattern — be it Bihar in the East, Karnataka in the South, or Madhya Pradesh in the North — BJP has become aggressive or is preparing to go aggressive. Interestingly, just days ago, Union Home Minister Amit Shah flew in to Bhopal for a few hours where he told the top leadership of the state, including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, to ‘fight aggressively’.
THE BIHAR CHAOS
Bihar BJP launched a massive agitation on Thursday following a decision by the Nitish Kumar cabinet to do away with the domicile clause for applicants. This effectively opens up jobs to applicants from across India. Going by the tone of the protest, Thursday’s agitation was sharper, more aggressive, and animated as the BJP gunned for Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.
While thousands of BJP cadres assembled, it was one of those rare occasions when the entire state leadership was leading. BJP MPs, MLAs, and MLCs — including former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi — braved the water cannon and blows of ‘lathi’ of the Bihar Police along with the cadres. State BJP president Samrat Choudhary told reporters that the opposition party was protesting to hold the government accountable, especially Tejashwi Yadav, who had promised “10 lakh jobs”.
The BJP held what the saffron party called the “Vidhan Sabha march”. Meanwhile, those MLAs who chose to remain inside the House built the tempo with provocative slogans like ‘Raddi CM Gaddi Chhod’ (incompetent chief minister should give up his post).
On the streets, it was absolute chaos where the police liberally used ‘lathis’. Many, including Modi, were detained. There were many instances where BJP supporters battled police ‘lathis’ with the stick to which the BJP flag was attached.
While the death of Singh has indeed put the Nitish Kumar government on the back foot, the BJP used public emotions and played the role of an aggressive opposition which may concern Kumar’s JDU and Yadav’s RJD in next year’s Lok Sabha election.
THE KARNATAKA REBOUND
This May, BJP lost Karnataka to the Congress in what is considered a huge psychological defeat ahead of a slew of state assembly elections and next year’s Lok Sabha election. But the BJP regrouped surprisingly fast and did what’s expected of a strong Opposition — taking to the streets and seeing the government on its toes. Taking one issue at a time, the BJP kept the pressure on the Siddaramaiah government.
In the beginning of June, BJP increased the aggression of its protests in Bengaluru and other districts of Karnataka against the proposed power tariff hike in the state. The BJP alleged that the Congress government has put several conditions on the five pre-poll guarantees, which makes it difficult for the residents to avail of benefits. Calling the Congress government ‘Hitler Sarkara’, BJP accused it of ‘deceiving’ people.
Not only did the BJP take to the streets on this issue but Mysuru MP and BJP leader Pratap Simha had asked people not to pay electricity bills from June 1 if their consumption was below 200 units. He had announced that he will stage a protest in the Mysuru-Kodagu region demanding the implementation of the free power scheme.
If that was one early bouncer the Congress-led Karnataka government managed to dodge, there was another. The Jain monk heading a monastery at Hirekodi in Belagavi district was recently chopped into pieces and his dismembered body parts were dumped in a defunct borewell. BJP latched on to the issue. BJP legislators recently staged a sit-in demonstration near the Gandhi statue in Vidhana Soudha against the brutal murder. Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai himself led the protest, making it a ‘law and order’ issue. Realising that Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are on the back foot on an issue that involves a religious monk, BJP launched a campaign in Karnataka demanding a CBI probe.
Less than two months after BJP’s drubbing in the state, they are back in a far aggressive avatar on the streets of Karnataka.
THE MIDNIGHT WARNING IN MADHYA PRADESH
Faced with unfavourable surveys in Madhya Pradesh, Amit Shah decided to travel to the state on Tuesday on a 24-hour notice. Till Monday, even top leaders from the poll-bound state — including the chief minister — were not aware of Shah’s plans, News18 has learnt. On Tuesday, Shah reached Bhopal at around 8.30pm and held a closed-door meeting that lasted for two-and-a-half hours.
While he addressed a variety of issues like organisation leadership or chief ministerial face, he had a complaint that he was not shy about sharing. Shah was not happy about BJP not being very “aggressive” in its campaign.
While the BJP is in opposition in the previous two states, in MP, it is the ruling party. Despite that, his message was clear — get aggressive. It is in this context that he asked to start the preparation of ‘Vijay Sankalp Abhiyan’, a reaching-out initiative of the BJP that is taken in the run-up to elections, with all guns blazing. Shah has told the Madhya Pradesh unit to keep the contours of the programme ready and he will be back in the state on the 30th of this month to give his go-ahead. Shah also directed to counter any allegation labeled by the Congress, in the run-up to the election, more resolutely.
While seen on a macro level, it is apparent that the BJP has shunned the way of countering by a mere tweet or a feeble press conference. In the last two months, across India, it has chosen aggression over timidity and streets over an auditorium.
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