Launching his election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday pleaded electorates in this Himachal Pradesh town with a promise to set ‘naya rivaj’ (new tradition) to re-elect the BJP government in the state.

Eyeing to woo female voters, who outnumbered male voters in every election, he asked them to visit door to door in this area to convey “my greetings” to them as this time elections are very crucial.

“The people of Himachal are determined to make a strong comeback of the BJP government. This land of soldiers, this land of brave mothers, when it takes a resolution, it only shows it by proving it,” said Modi, who donned a Himachali cap, in his nearly 40-minute address in this town in Mandi — the home district of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.

On his arrival, Modi was extended rousing reception by party workers and sympathizers, some donning traditional dresses. Many women were present en route, waving their hands at the Prime Minister’s arrival.

The Prime Minister said this time Himachal’s election is special. “This time, one vote each, to be held on November 12, will decide the development journey of Himachal for the next 25 years.”

Trying to build an emotional bond, Modi said: “I have visited Sundernagar several times before. I have also trekked inaccessible areas of Siraj, Kullu, Kinnaur, Chamba and Kangra. The roads here, such a beautiful BBMB lake of Sundernagar, how can anyone forget.”

Taking a jibe at the state’s main opposition Congress on the day it launched its poll manifesto, the Prime Minister said for the party staying in the government has been like running erstwhile kingdoms.

“Making false promises and giving false poll guarantees has been an old trick of the Congress. The country is witnessing that to how the Congress has been lying in the name of loan waiver of the farmers.”

Batting for a double-engine government that has given the state new infrastructure in every step, Modi emphasized that when there was the BJP government in Delhi and Himachal, the work was going on a fast pace.

“But as the Congress comes back, all development comes to a standstill.”

The Congress has always downplayed the role of Himachal Pradesh in national politics because they felt that the state was small and sent three-four members to the Parliament. “These were the reasons why Himachal never reached the heights of development.”

Amidst chants of “Modi-Modi” by the audience, largely the women, the Prime Minister was categorically clear in saying that development in the state was possible as people have voted the BJP to power both in the Centre and in the state.

“Today with the double-engine government, gas cylinders have reached every household. Electricity has reached everywhere, roads have also been built, water has also reached.”

Playing the religious card, Modi said the BJP has resolved to build Ram Temple. “Today such a grand Ram temple is being built in Ayodhya.”

Paying tributes to Shyam Saran Negi, 106, the first voter of independent India who cast his 34th vote for the forthcoming Assembly polls three days ago, who passed away at his native place Kalpa on Saturday, Modi said when he was coming from Delhi, he received the unfortunate news of the demise of India’s first voter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Tripura on October 27, and this sudden one-day tour — according to the political pundits — is to rejuvenate the BJP, and also to tame the anti-incumbency factors ahead of the assembly election which is around four months away from now.

Political analysts said that in the backdrop of the anti-incumbency factors of the BJP government, the saffron party is keen to kick-start the electoral preparation with Modi’s visit as the party would take a desperate attempt to retain power in Tripura, once a Left parties’ strong bastion.

As the BJP returned to the power for the second consecutive term in Assam (2021) and Manipur (2022) — the party is keen to maintain the same tempo in Tripura.

In Tripura, the BJP is in alliance with the tribal-based party Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) came to power in the 2018 assembly polls thrashing the CPI-M-led Left parties, which governed the northeastern state for 35 years in two phases (1978-1988 and 1993-2018).

To a query, an Election Commission official said that early election to the 60-member Tripura assembly is not possible as the summary revisions of the electoral rolls are going on and the final electoral rolls would be published on January 5, 2023, with January 1 as the qualifying date of birth for inclusion of new voters.

The elections are unlikely to be held before the third week of February next year, the official told media, refusing to be named.

Political analyst and writer Sekhar Datta said that the BJP government has been facing so many anti-incumbency factors and they are not in a comfortable position to face the electoral challenge.

“The central leaders of BJP do not want to take any chance to manage all the loopholes, shortcomings, and failures of the government. That’s why they are keen to start the electoral preparations in a big way and well in advance,” Datta told the media.

To give a positive message to the people, the central leaders had all of sudden removed Biplab Kumar Deb from the chief ministerial position on May 14 and appointed then-state President and Rajya Sabha member Manik Saha as his successor.

The central and state leaders of the party are yet to disclose the reasons behind the removal of Deb from the top post.

In an apparent attempt to tame anti-incumbency and stem any discontent within its organization in Tripura, the BJP adopted its now successfully tested strategy of going in with a new face in the Assembly polls.

With the strategy of changing the chief minister ahead of polls going in its favor in Uttarakhand, the BJP’s top leaders opted for a similar change in Tripura where the BJP had less than two percent vote share before the 2018 assembly polls.

The BJP has changed five chief ministers since 2019, including in Gujarat and Karnataka.

Another political commentator Sanjib Deb said that with the visit of the Prime Minister, the ruling BJP would prepare its organizational grounds with the crucial assembly polls in the early next year in mind.

“In less than two months of BJP President J.P. Nadda’s visit to Tripura, PM Modi’s visit is very significant as the party has already started its electoral preparations with all-out efforts,” Deb, editor of a leading Tripura daily, told to media.

However, CPI-M-led Left parties and the Congress are also preparing themselves to fight the upcoming elections, he pointed out.

Nadda during his two-day visit to Tripura in August held a series of meetings and addressed public rallies to gear up the party organizations ahead of the Assembly elections.

The BJP president as part of strengthening the organizations recently appointed former Central minister Mahesh Sharma as a central observer of Tripura replacing Vinod Sonkar while former Uttar Pradesh Minister Mahendra Singh and Rajya Sabha member Samir Oraon also appointed as election observers of the party in the poll-bound state.

Amid the preparations for the elections, a fresh controversy erupted after the BJP brought around 300 bikes and 100 Scorpio cars to Tripura from Uttar Pradesh forcing the opposition parties including the CPI-M, Trinamool Congress, and the Congress to demand a probe, alleging that the vehicles would be utilized for various “nefarious activities”.

Refuting the opposition parties’ allegations, the BJP said that around 100 bikes were brought for a state-wide campaign by the party leaders and workers.

“These bikes will be used in the Vistarak Yojana Campaign of the party aimed at establishing direct contact with the people in the state. The party members would take the BJP’s program, mission, and ideology to the doorsteps of the people,” Tripura BJP’s spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee told to media.

He said that the campaign would be conducted for a duration of one month to six months considering the size of the population and topography of an area.