New Delhi, Nov 23 (IANS): As BJP-led MahaYuti swept Maharashtra elections with a colossal victory over Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), an old photo symbolising Prime Minister Narendra Modi as 'Janata Raja' surfaced on social media.
‘Modi Archive’, a highly popular X handle, shared the photo and captioned, “Year 2006: CM Modi participating in real-life based play of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj with the name of 'Janata Raja' at Karnavati Club.”
Notably, ‘Janata Raja’ was a popular play, enacted in 2006, to recreate the life and accomplishments of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The play, held in Ahmedabad’s Karnavati Club also saw then Chief Minister Narendra Modi participating in the play, based on the life of Chhatrapati Shivaji.
The image of PM Modi in ‘Janata Raja’ avatar left the netizens curious as well as excited as this came on the back of BJP’s stupendous performance in Maharashtra.
The state BJP unit has already credited PM Modi for sharpening the party's poll pitch with his ‘ek hain toh safe hain’ slogan. The picture seems to reinforce PM Modi’s poll blitzkrieg as the reason behind BJP’s grand victory in the state.
The fight for championing Shivaji’s ideals and legacy also took centre stage in Maharashtra polls as both MahaYuti and MVA centred their campaign on his heroic exploits, in a bid to outdo each other. Both SS (UBT) and BJP-SS engaged in a bitter war of words over their pledge to champion the Marathi pride, in the run-up to Assembly elections.
The war of words also saw two factions of Shiv Sena fighting over the ‘legitimate successor of Balasaheb Thackeray’ and MVA firing barbs at the MahaYuti government over the collapse of a colossal statue of Maratha warrior king, alleging that it insulted Maratha pride by ‘facilitating’ corruption in the statue of state’s biggest icon.
Now, that the election results have decisively settled the battle, with people reposing faith in incumbent Eknath Shinde-led government, this is being projected as people’s endorsement of BJP and SS as the ‘saviour’ of Maratha pride.