Carpet bombing flops in MP

It is a tactic BJP leaders themselves call 'carpet bombing', one which has paid them great dividends in past election campaigns, reports Rakesh Dixit.

It is a tactic BJP leaders themselves call 'carpet bombing', one which has paid them great dividends in past election campaigns. A host of top leaders, from centre and state, fan out across the region where elections are to be held, and address a host of rallies simultaneously.

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But the party's carpet bombing of assembly poll-bound Madhya Pradesh on Monday evoked surprisingly poor response. Thirty two BJP heavyweights addressed around 70 meetings across the state, and all met the same fate.

The audience was so thin at the Iqbal Maidan rally in the heart of the capital that BJP president Rajnath Singh refused to address it, and left quietly for Raipur, claiming he was not well. The 'crowd' comprised barely 300 people.

So too Murli Manohar Joshi’s rallies in Gwalior and Morena, Sushma Swaraj’s in Chhindwara, Balaghat and Jabalpur, as well as Venkaiah Naidu’s in Ujjain, Mandsaur and Ratlam failed to draw much response. State leaders fared even worse.

For the record the BJP insists the carpet bombing was a great success, but privately leaders do concede that dissensions over ticket distribution, coupled with poor preparations by the local organisers led to the fiasco.