Lok Sabha 5th phase polling brings people’s verdict closer
Image credit X @RahulGandhi
High celebrity quotient marks 5th phase of Lok Sabha elections
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, May 20: Film stars lined up early in the morning in Mumbai to cast their votes. Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikant Das walked to the polling booth to cast his vote. The fifth phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections scores high on the glamour quotient.
The fifth phase of polling is also high on celebrity quotients from within the political fraternity. Leading the list is the former president of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress parliamentary board president Sonia Gandhi in her maiden appearance in a public meeting in the Rae Bareli constituency made an emotional pitch. “I am giving my son to you,” said Sonia Gandhi.
The BJP grabbed headlines in the Rae Bareli constituency by poaching Manoj Pandey, the incumbent Uttar Pradesh Assembly legislator. The Unchahar MLA is the trump card for the BJP against Rahul Gandhi.
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But the BJP appears battling foes within the party ranks. The voluble face of the saffron outfit, Piyush Goyal, made headlines for wrong reasons in Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat. This is arguably the safest Lok Sabha seat that the BJP could have found out for Goyal.
Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce, grabbed headlines for covering his nose while canvassing in an area of fishermen, a private college holding students captive to listen to pep talk on why they should vote for him, and the Mumbaikers trending the “dehumanising Mumbai suburban train experience” despite the city of dreams giving two railways ministers in the Narendra Modi-led government – Suresh Prabhu and Piyush Goyal.
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In Amethi, Union Minister Smriti Irani entertained the people with her mimicry skills. She mimicked the Congress national general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. She mimicked while seeking affirmative answers from her audiences on roads and toilets built under her watch in the constituency. Irani along with several other BJP MPs had to sweat out for not sparing enough time in their parliamentary constituencies in the last five years.
Union Minister for Defence Rajnath Singh has reworked the BJP slogan of ‘abki baar 400 paar’. He told the people in Lucknow parliamentary constituency that it should be ‘abki baar 5 lakh paar’.
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The victory margins of the BJP candidates, including Singh, were exemplars of the Modi wave in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The political observers are agreeable that the victory margins of the BJP candidates will surely be not even half of 2019 in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Modi has taken a leaf out of the book of Union Minister for Home Affairs, Amit Shah. Modi has said that the stock market will break all records after June 4. The investors are pleased, for Modi’s statements in the past on stock markets have invariably led to strong rally.
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