Political slugfest over state models in air as polls near

A political slugfest about governance models of different states and parties has wafted into the air as the nation gears up for crucial assembly polls this year and the next year including in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

While the BJP has been for long hard-selling the Gujarat model of governance of Modi in all the polls in the state and also outside, AAP has in this election campaign for Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat repeatedly invoked the Delhi model of Arvind Kejriwal's governance soon after the strategy paid it rich dividends in recently concluded Punjab polls where AAP formed a government.

In Tripura, where polls are scheduled early next year, Trinamool Congress, which lost its rank and file lock stock and barrel to BJP, i striving hard to stage a comeback with Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee promising that his party will replicate West Bengal model of good governance if voted to power in the North Eastern state. Banerjee has been arguing that the Bengal model is better than that of Tripura on development parameters.

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In Gujarat, where the mother of all battles is going to take place this year, Kerjriwal's AAP has sought to reorient poll narrative by confronting the BJP on civic, development and educational issues rather than confronting the saffron party on Hindutva issues.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia repeatedly drew attention to the condition of schools in the state; they had no desks for students and broken toilets and contrasted with what Kejriwal provided to government schools in Delhi.

Sisodia, the education minister in Delhi government, who is credited for bringing reforms in the running of government schools made these parallels after visiting two state-run schools in Bhavnagar, the constituency of Gujarat Education Minister Jitu Vaghani this month. Sisodia later invited the Gujarat CM to Delhi's government schools to have a feel of "AAP's model of governance".

Kejriwal showcased the Delhi model also in Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand but the success was not the same everywhere. While it managed to wrest power from Congress in Punjab, it mailed to halt the repeat comeback of BJP to power in the other two states. In UP, it lost deposits on all seats.

AAP is spotlighting the Delhi model even at international fora. AAP leader Atishi in her address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) drew attention to the governance model of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). She later tweeted "An honour to present the transformation brought about in Delhi, by the @ArvindKejriwal govt, before the @UN General Assembly. I believe that the 'Delhi Model' can provide insights for solving problems faced by many countries across the world". Kejriwal said the world is looking at Delhi for solutions in many areas of urban governance.

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Projection of Delhi model in Punjab also drew Opposition ire in wake of the on-goinng power outage. Attacking AAP government SAD leader Balwinder Singh Bhundar on Thursday said, "The Delhi model has electrocuted Punjab. Punjabis, who had been promised round-the-clock power supply, were facing 18-hour power cuts at the onset of the summer season."

LDF government's decision in Kerala this week to send a two-member high-level official team to Gujarat to study Gujarat Chief Minister's Dashboard system for project implementation, kicked up a political row with the Congress and the Muslim Leage slamming the move, which asked whether Kerala planned to emulate "Gujarat Model". An amused BJP said Kerala CM has that the Gujarat model is the right model and asked him to abandon the "failed" Kerala model.

Political analyst Rasheed Kidwai, says "Merely models will not win elections. Parties need to have programmes as well as personalities to win polls in the state. Punjab was a different scenario. There was strong anti-incumbency against Congress and BJP was not a force to reckon with. Hence AAP being the Opposition party was the natural beneficiary of the yearning for change. Also one model does not necessarily suit the other. In Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan had all along a different image. There are doubts where this transition of soft-spoken Chouhan to bulldozer Mama will yield gains for BJP."

BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh where assembly polls are due next year has chosen the safe bait of emulating Bulldozer Baba (Yogi Adityanath) of Uttar Pradesh earning the sobriquet of Bulldozer Mama for Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan after the demolition action against alleged rioteers in Khargone.

Trinamool Congress, which is at pains to explain that Mamata Banerjee is the only formidable challenger to Modi, has in last few months harped on Banerjee's model of governance in West Bengal is the best while there has been muted chatter of Naveen Patnaik's Odisha model of governance, a state in which the veteran BJD leader is in power for last five terms.

In July addressing TMC supporters and opposition leaders in the Constitution Club, Banerejee had categorically said, “Bengal is the model and not Gujarat."

Ironically Congress the main Opposition party has been shying away from projecting the model of governance in either of the states ruled by it Rajasthan where Ashok Gehlot is the Chief Minister, or Chhattisgarh where Bhupesh Baghel is CM.

Bihar whose Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had earned the sobriquet of 'Sushashan Babu' (Mr Good governance) is repeatedly under the target of Opposition parties, who are now questioning his model of governance while his ally the BJP has upped the hardline Hindutva campaigning eclipling the governance model of Nitish.

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