Uttar Pradesh plays a very important role in our political landscape. In 2014, BJP managed to secure 71 seats out 80 in Loksabha elections. As always, all parties are eyeing on India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh ahead of 2019 general elections. On one hand, Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party joined hand with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samajwadi Party, while on the other hand, Congress has fielded Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into the mainstream politics with the responsibility of West UP’s general secretary post. Amid the rapidly changing political equation in Uttar Pradesh, BJP doesn’t want to make any mistakes with taking advantage of every opportunity. Thus, Ardh Kumbh in Prayagraj has played the biggest campaign role for the ruling party, just a few months ahead of the general elections.
This week, I was in Prayagraj for two days. After taking the first dip in Sangam, I started a conversation with some pilgrims at the Ghaat. Most of the visitors were happy for getting facilities of the Ardh Kumbh, while many have told me that it’s for the first time that they have seen this kind of good management by the authorities. Cleanliness seemed like the supreme priority in Ardh Kumbh Mela. State government built the temporary iron-plated road for welcoming the devotees. More than 1 lakh fiber toilets were built and around 500 shuttle buses were provided for transporting pilgrims. Around five thousand tents were installed for people to stay in. Also, quite an awareness was seen among the attendees regarding the cleanliness. I saw that many volunteers were stopping people from spreading garbage. Apparently, the facilities were provided in Pryagraj’s Ardh Kumbh with an expenditure of more than 4,000 cr.
It was very interesting to see BJP’s campaign in the Kumbh, as there were thousands of BJP posters with different slogans across the 3200-acre fair. All the poster were displaying Uttar Pradesh government’s good governance and center’s policies. While many posters also appeared to be praising the Yogi’s 100 days work.
Some big LED screens were also installed in the fair, where devotees were seeing Live BJP rallies. Other LED screens were busy in praising of Modi’s policies. However, ironically most of the visitors did not seem interested in watching BJP’s Live rallies and Yogi’s message to the pilgrims. It seems that the saffron party doesn’t want to lose this opportunity to attract the maximum Hindu votes through the Ardh Kumbh.
I was standing quite far from a LED screen, where PM Modi’s live rally was playing. A young man who seemed to be educated was standing right next to me. I asked him, “I think you are enjoying PM’s rally more than Mela”. He took a jibe at BJP and said, “I think this is not the way to counter Mahagathbandhan (coalition) in Uttar Pradesh. This sort of campaigning is totally foolish and a sheer waste of money”. He said further, “I have been visiting the Kumbh Mela since my childhood, but this is my first experience where a political party has lavishly spent exchequer’s money on its campaign at a holy place”.
I spoke with around 50 people and many of them were happy about the facilities. Many pilgrims prasied Yogi Adityanth and gave credit to PM Modi. It doesn’t matter to the BJP that what opposition or other people think about the enormous amount of money spent in a religious gathering. It remains to be seen whether the election campaign of BJP in the garb of the Ardh Kumbh Mela was a successful move or not.