Word: bjp
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...Image Makeover the concerns of young voters are complicated and deeply felt, but so far, India's two main parties, the centrist Congress Party and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are addressing them only superficially. For Congress, that means promoting 38-year-old Rahul Gandhi as its most visible public face. Boyishly handsome and educated abroad, Gandhi has made it his mission to bring more young people into positions of power. He has pledged to hold elections for the leadership of the Congress youth wing within two years, and pushed the party to field more candidates under...
...BJP is facing its own branding challenge in selling young voters on an 81-year-old party leader, L.K. Advani, as its prime-ministerial candidate. In one now infamous image, Advani was photographed lifting dumbbells at a gym in Gandhinagar, his home constituency, as if to demonstrate his vigor. The party has set up a website and blog for Advani and is relying heavily on Internet and text-message advertising. "My young colleagues who have created this website told me that a political portal without a blog is like a letter without a signature," Advani wrote in his first post...
Indeed, many pollsters believe that one of the incidents that worked to the BJP's advantage was Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi's speech at a 2007 rally in which she referred to Modi as a maut ka saudagar - a merchant of death. Riding on outrage, Modi won re-election in Gujarat for a third term as Chief Minister. "Gujarat is one state that has been very touchy about Modi and anything written or spoken about him," says Mumbai-based poll analyst Jai Mrug, adding that Gandhi's remark rejuvenated the Hindu vote in the state in favor...
...BJP's aim is not to protect its seats in Modi's Gujarat, according to Mrug. The party fully expects to win very comfortably there. "But the BJP would certainly try and make use of his charisma and his newfound status as a martyr in states that have not yet gone to the polls and where no leader of Modi's stature has yet appeared," Mrug says. These include Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, among others. (Read about how India's young voters may change the country...
...BJP's gain - to whatever extent - may not translate easily into Modi's gain. Potential coalition partners are nervous about Modi, who has refused to apologize for the 2002 massacres. BJP allies like the Janata Dal (United) of Bihar, who want to reach out to Muslims, fear that such a stance will not go down well with the Indian electorate. Modi may be trying to make himself more acceptable to a wider audience. Since the Gujarat elections of 2007, Modi has been trying to paint himself as the able administrator who has brought progress and prosperity to Gujarat. The Supreme...