New Delhi: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the party’s “mazboori” (compulsion) as it cannot win even 150 seats in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections without him, the remarks coming in the backdrop of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement that leaders need to step aside after turning 75. The RSS has emphasised that Bhagwat’s comments have been taken out of context.
Dubey said Modi is going nowhere for the next two decades. “PM Modi will be leading the party for the next 15-20 years as the party has no option. The BJP’s compulsion is Modi rather than the other way round. The BJP will not get even 150 seats without Modi.”
His statement comes just days after Bhagwat quoted RSS ideologue Moropant Pingle to say that “if you are honoured with a shawl after turning 75, it means you should stop now. You are old. Step aside and let others come in.”
The Opposition interpreted this remark at the launch of a book on senior RSS leader Moropant Pingle in Nagpur 9 July to suggest it was an indirect nudge to PM Modi, who turns 75 this September.
In a podcast with new agency ANI, Dubey also clarified his earlier statement in which he had said that Yogi Adityanath is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and there is “no vacancy” in Delhi.
The Godda MP said he sees Prime Minister Modi as the central BJP leader for the next 15-20 years. “It is the BJP’s compulsion to fight the (2029 Lok Sabha) election under Modi and the BJP will have to fight under his leadership.”
Talking about the growing popularity of Adityanath and some quarters pushing him as the successor of Modi, Dubey said in an earlier interview that people did not vote on Adityanath’s name in the assembly elections in 2017, the year the BJP chose him the first time to become the chief minister after the party emerged victorious.
He said there are several popular leaders in the party like Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis and Home Minister Amit Shah, but till Modi is alive, there is no question of another leader in Delhi.
When he was asked about Bhagwat’s remark, Dubey said, “Today, the BJP needs Modi, rather than PM Modi requiring the BJP. Whether we like it or not, political parties run on personality cult.”
As Opposition parties latched on to Bhagwat’s statement to target PM Modi, the RSS said his remarks were taken out of context. “He was only quoting ideologue Pingle and the context was different”.
Several senior BJP leaders including Home Minister Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh have emphasised in the past that Prime Minister Modi is going nowhere even after turning 75.
“There is no retirement clause in the BJP’s constitution. Modiji will continue to lead till 2029. There is no truth in retirement rumours. The INDIA bloc won’t win the upcoming elections with lies,” Shah had said in May 2023.
While campaigning for the BJP before the 2024 elections, Defence Minister Singh had said in an interview that the party never talked about a retirement age for leaders.
“It was never decided. You can write in bold that no such decision was taken… I was a party president, and I am saying with force that there was no such decision at all. Had it been decided, it would have been mentioned in the party constitution,” he said.
Several BJP veterans such as L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Jaswant Singh were made the members of the BJP’s ‘Margadarshak Mandal’ when they crossed the age of 75, effectively retiring them. The Opposition has often used this as a tool to attack PM Modi, and ask if he would also retire upon turning 75.
When PM Modi visited the RSS headquarters in Nagpur in March, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut claimed he went to meet Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat to convey that he was retiring.
Several BJP leaders rushed to blunt Raut’s claim. “In 2029, we will see Modi as the prime minister again,” Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur.
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‘People will thrash Thackerays’
In the interview, BJP MP Dubey talked about other issues as well including the upcoming Bihar polls and targeting of those not speaking Marathi in Maharashtra.
He took strong exception to the targeting of non-Marathi speakers, and said Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray and his cousin and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray will bear the brunt of whatever their party workers are doing.
“As a lawmaker, I won’t take the law into my own hands but the Thackeray brothers will be thrashed by the public in whichever state they visit,” he said.
Uddhav and Raj Thackeray recently came together on a stage for a ‘victory rally’ in Mumbai to celebrate the Maharashtra government’s decision to rollback making Hindi mandatory as a third language in primary schools.
During the rally, Raj Thackeray told his party workers to beat whoever doesn’t speak Marathi, but not to record videos of such incidents.
Speaking on issues in the poll-bound Bihar, Dubey said, “The people of Bihar are suffering today due to (former prime minister) Indira Gandhi’s decision of creating Bangladesh, as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are entering Bihar. If she had to create Bangladesh ,she should have created Hindu Bangladesh and Muslim Bangladesh separately.”
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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