Lok Sabha elections 2019: Ramesh Bidhuri plays the Balakot card at Jat chaupal

“With Balakot airstrike, Modiji has proved that we (Indians) will not spare anyone who bothers us,” Bidhuri said at the onset of his speech.

In his first ‘chaupal campaign’ in Deoli village on Thursday, BJP candidate from South Delhi Ramesh Bidhuri addressed a crowd of around 200, mostly middle-aged and elderly residents. The meeting was held in a community hall, constructed recently in the erstwhile village chaupal.

“With Balakot airstrike, Modiji has proved that we (Indians) will not spare anyone who bothers us,” Bidhuri said at the onset of his speech.

“When Pakistani soldiers used to behead our jawans, our former Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) used to beg for peace… Lekin Modi hain toh badla mumkin hai (But it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who made revenge possible).” The crowd responded with a loud applause.

Deoli is an assembly constituency reserved for Dalit candidates that falls within the South Delhi parliamentary segment. It has some of the oldest Dalit-dominated localities, commonly addressed as Harijan Bastis by locals, and several choupals named after Dalit icons such as Valmiki and Sant Ravidas. However, the Deoli village within the reserved constituency, according to the residents, is a Jat-dominated area.

When Bidhuri, who belongs to the Gujjar community, was asked why he chose a Jat-dominated village, he said: “I have strong roots here.”

“I go beyond Gujjar-Jat caste politics in South Delhi to connect with people and engage in work aimed at development,” he added.

Several Deoli residents whom HT spoke to said their top three concerns are – better access to water, sewer lines and proper roads to tackle congestion.

Bidhuri, however, chose to start his 20 minute speech with “Modi-wave”, “Pakistan”, the Pulwama attack and the Balakot airstrike by India, leaving seven minutes to address local issues.

A BJP worker who helped organising the Thursday gathering said, “Such is the MP’s popularity in the area that we had to list names of over 40 people who would garland him”.

At one point, it turned into a stampede-like situation in which few people accidentally tripped over, throwing their garlands on the MP – and, thus, ended up garlanding one another.

While in the first part of his speech he mostly criticised the Congress, his attacks on the Aam Aadmi Party in the latter part were more local in nature. “The AAP has always used its so-called tussle with the Centre to cover up its failed deliveries on the issues of water, roads, connectivity, sanitation and getting land sanction for schools and colleges. If that [Arvind] Kejriwal] virus had not affected Delhi in 2015, the city would be like heaven by now under the BJP,” he said.