What’s the difference between being a political manager, formulating strategy for elections in the backroom, and being the candidate and the face of a campaign? Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, the BJP’s candidate from Alwar, fighting his first Lok Sabha election, is discovering the nuances of his position, a difference he describes as one between “a programme and a festival”.
Mr. Yadav, 54, has for long handled important States for the BJP — Bihar, for both the 2015 and 2020 Assembly elections, and more recently, Madhya Pradesh. The work, as he told The Hindu, was more about how the party’s organisation was geared for the elections, whereas being the candidate was more about connecting with the public at large, many a time leaving the backroom maneuvres to someone else. He has also been Rajya Sabha MP twice over.
Being a candidate is also about answering uncomfortable questions, including the one posed by The Hindu, that he had preferred Mahendragarh constituency to Alwar, and that he was fighting the “outsider” tag. “The party wanted me to fight from Alwar, and truly speaking, Mahendragarh, Rewari and Alwar are only delineated by political boundaries. It is, in terms of society, culture and kinship, a common ground,” he responded. “My maternal grandmother hails from Jakhrana, in Alwar. My paternal aunt has family in Siryani, which also falls in this constituency. More to the point, the Congress candidate Lalit Yadav and I, also have connections in common,” he said.
