In the election campaigning, Modi himself is reiterating how his government has given a strong response to the terrorists and also the nurturers of terrorists — referring to Pakistan. It is an open secret that our neighbour supports and harbours terrorists. Not only Modi, BJP party president Amit Shah has been highlighting rigorously that the opposition parties were sad after the Balakot strikes. Apparently, whole of the BJP campaign is banking heavily on nationalism pushing behind the slogan of development and painting the entire opposition as sympathetic to Pakistan.

In terms of popularity, undoubtedly Modi remains the tallest leader in the country. Even the opposition leaders accept that in terms of popularity Modi remains the tallest leader. Recently former Congress president Sonia Gandhi too echoed that in 2004 elections nobody had doubted that BJP would be defeated given the popularity of the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. According to Sonia, this would happen in 2019 too. Although, 2019 is not similar to 2004 but, indirectly Sonia too admitted the popularity of Modi. However, the question is — Why Modi and BJP are heavily banking on nationalism leaving behind the mantra of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas?

The obvious reason is, although BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi seems to be ahead of the opposition, it is worried about whether the party would get a majority on its own. The alliance of SP-BSP-RLD in Uttar Pradesh is a big headache for the saffron party as in 2014 the party’s largest share came from the state. Last time, there was no unity between BSP and SP. The alliance is banking on social arithmetics which has the potentiality to wash away the fortunes of the BJP in the state. Apart from this, BJP's defeat last year in the three Hindi Heartland states — Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — is also a cause of worry for the party. In 2014 polls, BJP won 62 Lok Sabha seats out of 65 in these three states. Besides, BJP is not sure whether the party would bag the maximum seats it requires from West Bengal and Odisha.

As a result, BJP has no other option but to rely on nationalism mixed with Hindutva to garner majority on its own. That's why the party even fielded terror accused Sadhvi Pragya as its candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat against former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh, who is a popular name in news media — thanks to his controversial comments. It appears as of now that if the BJP crosses the 200 mark it won't face any difficulty to form the government as it may manage to secure the support of regional parties like BJD, TRS and YSR Congress, who are expected to perform well and emerge as the keys to government formation at the centre if both NDA and UPA fail to cross the required 272 mark.

However, Modi and BJP want an NDA government where the saffron party on its own should have a single majority as it happened in the last five years. Otherwise, BJP has to take on board the regional parties who have their own regional priorities and for the saffron party it won't be easy as it may anger its hardcore supporters. That's the reason, BJP, apart from focusing on the success of its own schemes like Ayushman Bharat, Ujjwala Yojana, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samridhi Yojana etc., is heavily using the plank of nationalism mixed with Hindutva by portraying the threat of terrorism, which, undoubtedly, still remains a serious threat to the nation.

After all, only development doesn’t ensure votes in a diverse country like India as it is a difficult task to satisfy all communities. In India, nationalism is an emotional issue which when mixed with majority Hindu sentiments plus the mantra of development of all communities has the potentiality to beat anti-incumbency as it will draw voters cutting across communities and backgrounds. Modi and BJP are working on this weapon. (IPA Service)