BJP Drops ‘Harsh’ Poll Anthem, Seeks To Project ‘Softer, Positive’ NaMo

NEW DELHI: Less than a month after the big-bang release of its poll anthem, BJP has quietly dropped the campaign song as its over-the-top projection of Narendra Modi was found to be an aggressive overkill.

The anthem’s lines spoken by Modi — “main desh nahin jhukne dunga ... main desh nahin mitne dunga (I will not let the nation bow down/be rubbed out)” — are seen as needlessly dire and apocalyptic. “The suggestion that the nation faces a threat to its existence is unwarranted. Getting Modi to speak the lines was also not a good decision as he comes through in ‘hard’ tones,” said a BJP leader.

Party sources said Modi’s team had not been fully comfortable with the anthem’s pitch and formulation but had gone along with the assessment of the central campaign managers. By mid-April — the anthem was released on March 25 — there was a fairly wide consensus in the BJP brass that the theme needed to be further tweaked by projecting Modi in softer hues.

The Gujarat CM has taken the call himself, deciding to avoid a polarizing approach in his campaign in north Bihar, despite some BJP leaders feeling a political point could be made on JD (U) candidate Akhtarul Iman retiring from the fray in Kishanganj to facilitate “Muslim unity” against BJP.

The saffron campaign is now expected to further elaborate on the “Modi aa gaya” theme with specifics like his pitch for “minimum government, maximum governance”.

Modi’s recent campaign pitch, seeking 300 seats for NDA, aims at pulling in the floating vote while ensuring that supporters are motivated to turn out and vote.

BJP managers, wary of criticism that the party is indulging in triumphalism, are concentrating on specific messages like “beti bachao, beti padao (save the girl child, educate her)” and job-oriented economic growth.

It was also felt that a strongly negative campaign against the shortcomings of the ruling UPA had served its purpose and with feedback indicating a pro-Modi mood, the message now needs to be a lot less darker.

The first hint that the anthem, composed by Prasoon Joshi and sung by Sukhwinder, may need to be altered came when BJP’s campaign advertisements were edited to retain only the lines spoken by Modi.

But these too have been withdrawn as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate focuses on “positive” change as the 2014 Lok Sabha election moves into its last phases with Modi seeking a clear mandate from voters.

BJP leaders involved in planning Modi’s campaign said the party was making a big effort to “tap the vote” through booth level organization and using call centres to monitor voter response to the party’s poll pitch.

In UP, for example, some 50-odd cells have been formed to coordinate various aspects of the campaign ranging from dispatch of video raths and identifying constituencies and areas needing last minute attention by way of resources or campaigns.