For debutant Bhupender Yadav, ‘proximity to Modi; biggest plus, water shortage a minus

“It is not an election where there is a choice between two parties. It is an election to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister again. Abki baar 400 paar (this time, 400-plus seats),” says Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, the BJP’s candidate from Alwar in Rajasthan. The senior BJP leader is speaking at a nukkad sabha in the village of Budhi Bawal.

This statement does not evoke much of a response in a crowd of mostly men over the age of 50 and half a dozen women who seem to be eager to hear something else. Yadav follows up his statement with an assurance: “Once elected, I will resolve the water crisis you are facing.” The crowd claps.

Yadav, who handles the ministries of Labour and Employment, and Environment, Forest and Climate Change, speaks of the water table in the area going down “drastically” and goes on to blame former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for not taking “corrective steps”.

Gehlot, Yadav tells the crowd, was “biased and did not bother to address the concerns of those who did not vote for the Congress, but now Modiji has started the process”. But the Congress is not completely out of the picture in Alwar, where some voters still fondly remember its government, voted out in December.

Yadav, who has been a two-time Rajya Sabha MP and is in the Lok Sabha poll fray for the first time, faces complaints related to irrigation and water in almost every meeting in the Kishangarh Bas Assembly segment.

The Union Minister has been among the key BJP strategists under the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah leadership and played a significant role in the BJP’s campaigns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, and most recently in Madhya Pradesh. His stature in the party is a significant talking point.

“Woh toh Modi ji ke panch ratna mein ek hain (H