It was in June 2013 when Kedarnath was devastated by the killer flash floods. The then Uttarakhand government headed by senior BJP leader Vijay Bahuguna didn’t let then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi land at the shrine town of Kedarnath. Besides, CM Modi had offered help for the reconstruction of the shrine that was apparently not accepted by the state government.
Eight years down the line, Narendra Modi as Prime Minister was in the Kedarnath shrine on Friday. After inaugurating several reconstruction works, PM Modi minced no words in saying that he was sure “Kedarnath will stand again, more vibrant than earlier”.
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As a PM, it was his fifth visit to the revered shrine, which got a facelift in the last couple of years. The Prime Minister’s fourth visit to Kedarnath was in 2019, just ahead of the last phase of general elections, when his powerful meditating pictures from a cave became a talking point.
Is Congress Playing on BJP’s Pitch?
Interestingly, on Friday when PM was in Kedarnath, the opposition Congress visited ‘Shivalayas’ (Shiva temples) across Uttarakhand. Head of the party’s campaign committee Harish Rawat was in Haridwar’s ancient Daksh Prajapati Temple amid the presence of priests chanting mantras.
Rawat said that his government steered the reconstruction works that now the BJP claims as its own. “Congress will take forward works after assuming power,” he asserted.
Uttarakhand goes to the polls early next year.
It is pertinent to mention that in the middle of a political mess in early 2014, the Congress party had replaced Bahuguna with Rawat as the chief minister. In the assembly elections held three years later in 2017, Congress was routed in the hill state although it won the Kedarnath seat despite facing an accusation of appeasement politics in favour of a community.
Kedarnath’s Political Message
In the run-up to the 2022 assembly elections, it seems that the BJP’s political plank will revolve around the development and Hindu self-pride. Sensing this, ahead of the PM visit, Rawat visited Kedarnath last week and posted pictures of him dancing with a baba.
Later, Punjab chief minister Charanjeet Singh Channi and Punjab Congress president Navjot Siddhu too visited Kedarnath.
BJP’s minority face and spokesperson Shadab Shams has said that Congress is forced to toe their party line. “The Congress temple run is a new thing earlier they would visit other religious places,” he said.
Meanwhile, political analyst Avikal Thapaliyal said even though the party now has a young chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, still odds are not in favour of BJP, which changed the chief minister thrice.
“BJP’s hope lies on PM Modi’s magic. However, the impact is yet to be seen,” Thapaliyal added.
A section in the saffron party feels that the PM’s brand image and an informal ‘poll bugle’ from Kedarnath is a big ‘booster’ for cadres. In the coming three months, BJP has further planned five to six tours of PM Modi in Uttarakhand.
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