Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal, all under non-BJP governments, are among the few big States which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not visited since he assumed office, data from the Prime Minister’s Office on his travels show.
The four States most visited by Mr. Modi — Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir — all had elections over the past 10 months. A little over half of these trips were listed as “unofficial” in the travel disclosure statement put out by the PMO. However, even among the “official” visits Mr. Modi undertook to these four States, the majority were before the elections.
The other States not visited by Mr. Modi (till February-end) are Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Mizoram (all under non-BJP governments) and Punjab and Chhattisgarh, which are ruled by the BJP or its allies.
The PMO should be appreciated for this move towards transparency and accountability, BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli said. “It would be unfair to judge the PM on his travel so far in an election year during which he has also undertaken international travel,” Mr. Kohli said. Pointing out that the PM had travelled to the non-BJP-ruled northeast, Mr. Kohli said that Mr. Modi’s travel reflected his commitment to federalism.
Comparable data for Mr. Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh, are not available.
However, the data, the Congress said, were evidence of the fact that this was “a PM in permanent campaign mode.” “I’m not at all surprised; in fact, it’s what I’ve come to expect from the BJP under Mr. Modi and Amit Shah,” Congress spokesperson Salman Soz said.
“Having won a massive mandate last May, the BJP has been trying to consolidate its position. So what has happened is not unlike what happens in the U.S., where the President runs a campaign, wins, and then immediately starts campaigning again,” he said. “What he is doing is playing politics. Whether the PM should be playing so much politics is for the people to decide.”
Mr. Modi has travelled to 12 countries, data from the Ministry of External Affairs show. Reflecting his focus on the neighbourhood, half of them are Asian countries.
