Why BJP’s publicity blitzkrieg on Delhi civic polls is misleading -Governance Now

Why BJP’s publicity blitzkrieg on Delhi civic polls is misleading

In an attempt to project the civic elections in Delhi as Narendra Modi versus Arvind Kejriwal battle, the BJP is even distorting facts

GN Bureau | April 18, 2017

#Narendra Modi #Arvind Kejriwal #Swaraj India #civic polls #publicity blitzkrieg #AAP #BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party’s publicity blitzkrieg in the run-up to the municipal elections in Delhi is a major psychological warfare against the Aam Admi Party (AAP), aimed at blurring the lines between facts and fiction and national and local elections.

Led by Bhojpuri film actor Manoj Tiwari, the BJP has launched a radio campaign targeting Arvind Kejriwal for not fulfilling the promises his party had made to the voters in Delhi Assembly elections; focus is on its failure to provide cheap healthcare, free medicines and take steps on women’s safety.

In this high profile campaign, BJP conveniently remains mum on the fact that three Municipal bodies in the capital are controlled by the saffron party itself and not by the AAP. The latter has even admitted to its failure in giving maximum governance to Delhi people and puts the blame on the BJP. The AAP government had been blaming the BJP at the centre – for creating hurdles in the matters of security and on the party-controlled municipal bodies for not taking care of the civic problems.

However, the media campaign skirts all these issues and pits chief minister Kejriwal as the main villain in the game of political one-upmanship.

BJP though very subtly has projected its policy of not giving the mandate to the incumbent civic body members. The buzz is that due to endemic corruption in the civic bodies, BJP knew that giving tickets to the present leaders would put off the voters hence the party has given mandate to fresh faces.

Interestingly, the AAP has been missing from radio campaign while its splinter group Swaraj India has its presence there.

However, what is most surprising is fact that the BJP has raised the bar for the municipal elections by projecting it as a direct fight between prime minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal . This is quite unprecedented.

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