Targeting Congress manifesto, Insta videos, drawing room meets: What BJP did differently

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third Lok Sabha campaign saw some new themes being deployed, even as much of the hectic campaign style of the BJP under him remained the same throughout the gruelling 40-day-long cycle. As always, he led from the front.

The biggest departure from the 2019 Lok Sabha campaign was the use of the Congress’s manifesto as the BJP’s main campaign pitch. Perhaps for the first time, this turned the manifesto of a political party into the most debated point in an election campaign.

On April 6, which happens to be the BJP’s foundation day, and a day after the Congress released its manifesto, PM Modi said in Ajmer, “Yesterday, the Congress party issued a bundle of lies. This is going to expose the truth of the Congress. Aap dekhiye, har panne par Bharat ke tukde karne ki boo aa rahi hai. Congress ke ghoshnapatra main wahi soch jhalakti hai jo soch azaadi ke samay Muslim League mein thi. Muslim League ke uss samay ke vicharon ko Congress aaj Bharat par thopna chahti hai (Every page reeks of breaking India into pieces. The Congress manifesto reflects the same thinking that was prevalent in the Muslim League at the time of Independence. Congress wants to impose those ideas on India today).”

In UP’s Saharanpur the same day, he said, “The Congress of today is completely disconnected from the nation’s hopes and aspirations… Its manifesto has the stamp of the then Muslim League. And what little remained in this Muslim League manifesto has been captured by Communists. One cannot spot the Congress at all in this (manifesto). Today’s Congress can’t take India forward in the 21st century,” he said.

On April 26, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Modi, seeking time to explain in person his party’s