FAUX PAS IN BJP POSTERS DRAWS LEADERSHIP’S IRE

Mumbai: Controversy has arisen in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over posters and hoardings displayed in the wake of celebrations of its government installation in Maharashtra.
When Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis arrived in Nagpur on Tuesday, the absence of Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah’s photo from the banners and hoardings up by party workers raised eyebrows.

This apparent slight now has party workers and leaders questioning if the slight was deliberate or the consequence of a human error. “It must have been a human error. Deliberately ignoring PM Narendra Modi or Union Home Minister Amit Shah within the BJP comes at its own peril. For Maharashtra particularly, Shah played the pivotal role in the installation of the CM Eknath Shinde led government, executing the instruction of the Prime Minister on the subject,” a senior BJP leader told First India asking not to be named.

He, however, acknowledged the contradictions in Maharashtra BJP’s narrative over the past few days. “At his Nagpur felicitation, Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis said that he had proposed to elevate Shinde to the CM’s chair. He added that it was not practical to run a government by remaining outside. If that were so, why did he first tell the media that he would support the Shinde government from the outside before taking charge as Dy CM?,” he pointed out. He noted that Fadnavis may have been addressing his support base in Nagpur and may have made the comments keeping that in mind while adding, “Operation Lotus was the implementation of orders by PM Modi to reinstall the BJP in Maharashtra that was ably executed by Home Minister Amit Shah. The subsequent lastminute decision to procure a third chair for the swearing-in of Fadnavis along with Shinde was also mandated from New Delhi. There is no doubt about it.” He added, “Around four months ago, a similar faux pas took place when the picture of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was prominently displayed in a hoarding outside the BJP south Mumbai office, while Shah’s was missing. The designer and fabricator of the hoarding along with the BJP point person responsible were hauled up for the mistake. Posters have a protocol in respect of the display size, as per the BJP leadership hierarchy in the party, that has to be followed at all times.”