Having deployed the “collective leadership” stratagem in Madhya Pradesh to override anti-incumbency against the state government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and oratory to breathe life into the party’s electoral campaign and retain power in the state in the November 17 elections.

According to party functionaries, Modi will hold 14 rallies in the state, starting with an address in Ratlam on Saturday. Over the course of the next few weeks, Modi is expected to hold rallies in Seoni, Khandwa, Sidhi, Morena, Damoh, Guna, Satna, Chhatarpur, Neemuch, Barwani, Betul, Shahganj and Jhabua.

The party’s electoral theme “Modi Ke Mann Mein MP” (MP close to Modi’s heart) and the slogan “Phir Is Baar BJP Sarkar” (BJP government once more) have been designed to keep the focus on the Prime Minister and draw attention away from the “disinterest and detachment” with state leaders, party functionaries said.

Although chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced a slew of social schemes, including the popular Ladli Behna Yojana that offers cash incentives to women, there is a “fatigue” factor that is now associated with him, and which the party feels has weakened his ability to draw votes, the functionaries said. Therefore, they added, the BJP’s gambit of not pitching Chouhan – a four-term CM – as the claimant for the top job and fielding senior leaders, including Union ministers, in the state polls is expected to blunt voter apathy and anger that the party fears could dent its chances after being in power for 20 years, except for a 15-month interlude.

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The party has fielded three Union ministers – Narendra Singh Tomar, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Prahlad Patel – and four Lok Sabha MPs – Rakesh Singh, Ganesh Singh, Riti Pathak, and Uday Pratap Singh – for the assembly elections with the hope that it will send out a message of a collective leadership contesting the polls.

“The Prime Minister is the most popular leader and there is no change in his acceptance… Our surveys show that the ratings (for the Prime Minister) are high as he is perceived to be a dependable leader who delivers what he promises. His rallies are a big draw and past record shows that his address can turn the mood in the party’s favour,” a party leader said.

With pre-poll surveys indicating a tough electoral battle between the BJP and the Congress, the former has increased the PM’s rallies from 10 in 2018 to 14 this year. Although the party did not win the 2018 polls, bagging just 109 of the 230 seats, the response to the Modi’s rallies in constituencies that were addressed by him proved to be positive, the leader said. “We won six of the 10 constituencies where he addressed the crowds,” he said. These included constituencies in Vidisha, Mandsaur, Chhatarpur and Gwalior.

With the Congress promising subsidies, attacking the state government over issues such as inflation and job cuts, and wooing the OBC vote bank by hammering the need for a caste-based enumeration and revisiting the quotas, the BJP is hoping that the performance of the Union government, particularly through the implementation of various social schemes and cash incentives for farmers and women, will tip the scales in its favour, party functionaries said.