Realising that any personal attack on the prime minister would backfire, Congress is steering clear of making any such comments and instead highlighting the Dalit background of party president Mallikarjun Kharge.

In 2017, Mani Shankar Aiyar’s comment calling the prime minister a ‘neech aadmi’ had given the BJP a clear edge, with Modi using the barb to point out that an entitled Congress revelled in making attacks at him by ridiculing a man from a humble background.

The party, now in election mode, is now harping on the humble origins of Kharge as a strategy. At a rally in Banaskantha, an Adivasi belt in Gujarat, Kharge said: “The prime minister always says he is poor. I am Kharge, the poorest of the poor. I come from the untouchables… At least someone used to drink your [PM Modi’s] tea… nobody even drinks my tea. You (Modi) say I am poor, someone told me bad words, ‘Meri aukat kya hai’… if you are trying to gain people’s sympathy, people are not fools. They are very smart.”

Sources in Congress say there is a reason why the party unleashed Kharge in the fag-end of an otherwise lack lustre campaign in poll-bound Gujarat. According to the party, he ticks the right boxes and can help with damage control. He can also help manage the perception that the Gandhis are entitled and the party has lost sync with the poor.

Kharge also chose the location of his speech strategically — Banaskantha is an Adivasi area that is somewhat a Congress stronghold.

It is not just Kharge’s Dalit background that the Congress hopes will work in its favour. More importantly, having someone who rose from the ranks — beginning as a labour union leader — Congress hopes Kharge can be a match to Modi’s humble origins. In fact, sources say it hopes to play the ‘Who is More Humble’ card in several state elections culminating in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. This, coupled with Rahul Gandhi’s ‘image makeover’ after the Bharat Jodo Yatra, should hopefully work for the beleaguered party.

However, elections are not won only on image cultivation. It has to be backed by smart strategy and strong organisation — areas where the BJP has the cutting edge.

With inputs from News18