Focus in UP polls changes, 2nd half turns emotional

Addressing a rally on Monday at Mau in the eastern part of the state which will go to polls in the last two phases, sixth and seventh, Modi did not stress,as usual, on the developmental measures his government had taken but on the situation arising out of a hung assembly.

Making an emotional appeal, he urged the voters to give a clear majority to the BJP as a hung assembly being feared by many including his rivals will harm the interest of the common people. To buttress this point he gave example of the majority government at the Centre achieved after nearly 30 years.

"The country has moved faster in last two and a half years since the installation of a BJP-led government which has got an absolute majority. Many schemes would not have seen the light of the day without this majority", he pointed out.

Fearing that this example might not have gone too well with the audience, he asked, in his usual style, has not the country's image improved in the eyes of the foreign nations including the USA? Hearing positive response he himself gave the reason behind it. " It is because you have given a majority" he said, adding " act in a similar manner in this election in the state".

He is not the first to play the emotional card. Leaders of two other major parties,the SP and the BSP , have done likewise. Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, for instance, asked the voters to extend full support to the "Beti (daughter)" of the state and not to the adopted son. The reference was to Modi who calls himself the adopted son of U P because of his election from Varanasi constituency.

Wife of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple, has made a similar kind of appeal. " Elect Samajwadi Party. It will be a marriage gift to me and my husband", she urged although she was married years ago.

The election issues were different at the outset. Samajwadi Party leaders including Dimple used to highlight the achievement of her party government, Mayawati had emphasised on her new strategy and allotment of more tickets to Muslims this year. Also that she would concentrate on socio-economic development and not on installing statues of her party's icons.