Modi charm fading in Madhya Pradesh?

BHOPAL: The first leg of Modi's last-lap carpet bombing of Madhya Pradesh to wipe out rising anti-incumbency was not a blitzkrieg if one goes by the turnouts at his rallies.

Just 7 weeks ago, there were 7 lakh people rooting for Modi at the party's mahakumbh in Bhopal. On Monday, there were only 7,000 people listening to BJP's PM-in-waiting - a trickle in comparison to the mahakumbh flood. His rallies at Sagar, Chattarpur and Guna also received tepid response. Is the Modi charm fading in Madhya Pradesh?

"Even the rally turnout of 7,000 in Bhopal is on the higher side," said a senior police official. When Modi's chopper landed in Bhopal, rally organisers were left red-faced. The sprawling Dussehra Maidan was still empty.

Somehow, a local BJP leader managed to mobilise a crowd of 2000 students from a local college. That saved the BJP from a big embarrassment.

State BJP spokesperson Hitesh Vajpayee said, "Modi reached Sagar before time, so crowds were just beginning to move in. But at Chattarpur, Guna and Bhopal, the turnout was on expected lines."

After touching down at Sagar, Modi expressed his displeasure to the sitting BJP MP, Bhupendra Singh, who is also contesting the election from Khurai. "Maidan toh khali hai (The maidan is empty)", Modi reportedly told Singh.

When the rally began, there were around 10,000 people at the meeting ground. As a strategy, BJP allowed Shailandra Jain, party candidate from Sagar, Bhupendra Singh Thakur from Khurai and Gopal Bhargawa from Rehli to speak before Modi. In the meantime, police were requested to remove barricades to let people enter the rally ground. And 20 minutes later by the time, Modi began speaking, the turnout was about 25,000.

In fact, Modi was jolted the moment he landed in Madhya Pradesh at around 11 am at the Khajuraho airport by a chartered plane. At 11.35 am, he was in Chattarpur and was shocked to find a thin crowd at the meeting ground.

Ghasiram Patel, district president of BJP said, "he reached at 11.35 pm at the meeting place when his scheduled arrival was around 1. He was before time and we could not spread the message around." About 20,000 people turned out at Chattarpur.

In Guna, the same day, just before the Bhopal rally, he landed around 3.25 pm and the first question that he asked a local party leader, "How is the crowd?."

And the answer did not impress Modi. He preferred waiting at the helipad before reaching the Dussehra maidan in Guna, only to find thin crowds. There were around 15,000-20,000 people only.

Organisers said first his meeting was scheduled at 3.45 pm and then it was rescheduled for 2 pm.

Off the record, BJP leaders confided that a security threat to Modi is looming large. In Bhopal, the party discouraged a large turnout as it was already dark when the rally began.