New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu reached out to a number of opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, to stitch up an anti-NDA front ahead of the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections on May 23.
Election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, who had objected to the five clean chits to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, in a letter on May 16 protested that his demand that his “dissent” be recorded in the orders was not accepted. He, therefore, recused himself from future meetings in protest.
CEC Sunil Arora termed the controversy “unsavoury” and insisted the commissioners were not supposed to be “template or clones of each other”.
How did the media report these stories and more?
English media
NDTV 24X7
With headlines like “Clean chit war escalates – Lavasa letter to EC” and “May take recourse to other measures – Lavasa”, the channel took up the rumblings in the poll panel.
Citing Lavasa’s letter and the concerns raised by him about his dissent not being recorded while giving a clean chit to Modi and Shah, anchor Sarah Jacob said, “No wonder the opposition is raising the issue of EC being a puppet.”
Bhaskar Ghosh of the BJP responded, saying: “The EC is a constitutional body with internal regulations – they have to decide how to take their decisions”. He insisted that “A minority statement is not must for quasi-judicial proceedings”.
The channel also reported how Arora noted that the commission had on May 14 decided to form groups to discuss 13 other issues later, including the MCC.
Mohammad Khan of the Congress said while on a complaint against Rahul Gandhi, the EC was quick to send a notice when it came to 11 complaints filed by the party against Modi and Shah, they did not even do so. Also, he said, contrary to the norm, the decisions in all the cases decided against the BJP leaders were very brief and did not give many details.
Times Now
With #May23WithTimesNow and headlines like “Super 60 to indicate ‘winner’” and “All eyes on India’s super 60”, the channel took a look at some crucial Lok Sabha seats.
One of these was Guna in Madhya Pradesh from where Jyotiraditya Scindia of Congress won despite the 2014 Modi wave.
Anchor Navika Kumar said, “If there is an upset there will be a story.”
Journalist-politician Ashutosh chipped in saying, “Jyotiraditya reminds me of his father who defeated Vajpayee in 1984. If only there is a wave of Modi, will he lose. But in 2014, he had countered that wave in Guna and Kamal Nath in Chhindwara.”
The second seat the programme took up was Bhopal from where Sadhvi Pragya Thakur of the BJP is pitted against Digvijay Singh of the Congress.
Journalist Sanjeev Srivastava said: “Initially, due to the Hindutva surge, it appeared that Pragya was ahead. But people have largely voted for Digvijay – even Bhopalis have some sense of pride.” He said the “BJP confused its supporters, it put off a lot of supporters by fielding Pragya. The party has not lost the seat for 30 years – but she has not been getting a good response in local ‘sabhas’ (meetings).”
Another journalist Saba Naqvi said, “Pragya has also not been getting support of local MLAs.”
Kumar then asked, “So you are saying it is not going to be a cakewalk.”
Author Sadanand Dhume noted that “This is also a seat people would be watching outside India – it is seen as the BJP going with someone with very serious charges against her (Pragya is an accused in the Malegaon blasts case). She is not seen as a victim abroad, the way the BJP has been projecting her.”
Ashutosh added that “Fielding Pragya has damaged Modi’s international image, for the aspirational class Pragya cannot be an icon.”
Political analyst Anand Ranganathan said that in this election, “For the BJP every vote is a vote for Modi, in case of Pragya, it tried to garner sympathy.”
Republic TV
With #ModiInKedarnath, the channel recalled the PM’s visit to the shrine. It said he has visited Kedarnath thrice in two years with May 2017 being the first. “Can opposition question his visit a day before the final phase?” the channel asked.
It also reported on #PrePollFront and reported the “Hectic meetings before final phase (of polling)”. The anchor questioned the logic saying “post-poll alliances do not get preference before the single largest party”, even as headlines like “BJP – opposition in panic” and “Opposition’s final attempt to unite” played out.
Hindi media
NDTV India
The channel reported how “Rallies and roadshows replaced by closed-door meetings”. It said Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has called all opposition parties on May 23 and that Naidu is also trying to bring all parties together.
In this regard, Naidu met Rahul Gandhi, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, BSP supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav. Earlier on Friday, he also met CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Arvind Kejriwal of AAP.
The channel said, “If NDA numbers fall short – strategy is to stake claim on May 23 itself.” The effort, therefore, is to get all non-NDA parties on board before that day.
ABP News
There was an interesting story, titled “Saand ek chunavi katha” (Bull – a poll story), on the channel. It was all about how stray cattle have not only wrecked the lives of farmers and ordinary citizens but also found a mention during the campaign.
It said that as the 39-day electoral campaign was drawing to a close, this “real issue” got overlooked – since farmers and ordinary people are battling the stray on a daily basis. The report also showed images of stray bulls even causing havoc during public rallies and chopper landings of VIP politicians.
The programme showed attacks by bulls during campaigns. In Balia, Akhilesh was shown comparing BJP leaders with bulls, saying all of them would go away on May 23. He said the government claimed it caught 8,000 in the past few months and the NGT and the high court have asked that all be removed from the streets by May 25. “But before that on May 23, they will go away themselves,” he chuckled.
The channel also conveyed how the stray cattle menace increased during Adityanath’s regime since he equated them with Lord Shiva’s bull ‘Nandi’ and accused the opposition of being “friends of butchers”.
However, Adityanath himself survived a bull scare when two of them entered the spot where his chopper landed in Hardoi on April 22. Opposition leaders were shown laughing off the matter saying, “They had broken the barricades to welcome him.”
Zee News
At a time when Rajasthan government has removed “Veer” as a prefix to Savarkar’s name in school textbooks, and Pragya Thakur has termed Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse as a martyr, the channel gave its views on what the two leaders in question stood for.
Anchor Sudhir Chaudhary read out texts to state that when the British urged Congress to send Indian soldiers into the British Army, “Mahatma Gandhi supported the idea” and he even “wrote a letter to Lord Chelmsford” in this regard.
Therein Chaudhary said that “In his eyes, it was clear that every person should be in the service of the British – and that he wanted to give birth to loyalty towards the British in every Indian”.
On the other hand, Chaudhary quoted from B.R. Ambedkar’s book, Pakistan Ya Bharat ka Vibhajan (Partition of India or Pakistan), to state how the icon of Dalit empowerment had noted that Savarkar and Jinnah’s views matched on the issue of Partition. “They both believed that there were two nations – Hindustan and Pakistan. Only Jinnah wanted them separated, while Savarkar said the nation should not be divided – he wanted both ‘qaum’ to stay within the country and under the same constitution.”
Chaudhary also said: “The book mentions how Savarkar wanted equal rights for Muslims, but not a reservation for them.”
The channel charged that the “Congress wants to confuse the new generation about revolutionaries”. It also had headlines like “Please spare Veer Savarkar in books for children” and “Why the conspiracy to vilify Savarkar?” and asked why a portrait of Savarkar was installed in the Central Hall of parliament during Vajpayee era if he was not worthy of it.