The BJP’s Lok Sabha 2019 poll theme was centered around the “Main bhi chowkidar” theme with most BJP leaders adding ‘Chowkidar’ to their social media accounts. Over a month after the election results and the re-election of the NDA government with Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, some BJP leaders are yet to drop chowkidar tag from their accounts. Modi himself dropped the tag within hours of the election results. All leaders followed suit except Gujarat minister Jayadhratsinh Parmar who continutes to call himself a ‘chowkidar’ on his Twitter account. Former Gujarat minister and BJP state vice-president Jaysinh Chauhan, too, continues to use the chowkidar tag on Twitter as does Rajkot South MLA, Govind Patel. Chauhan said, “Modiji has already said that the spirit of being guardians of the country or chowkidars does not end with the election. In fact there is more responsibility. The prefix of the name on social media doesn’t matter.”
The Pulwama attack in February this year in which 42 CRPF personnel were killed and the subsequent Balakot airstrike became a poll issue for the BJP during the Lok Sabha elections. Elected representatives attended countless prayer and tribute meetings organised by residents across the state, in respect to the battling militancy in Kashmir. The events ceased with the elections. On June 29, Vadodara city MLA Manisha Vakil attended an event organised by a private school in which the management of the school handed over a cheque of Rs 4.01 lakh for the families of the personnel who lost their lives in Pulwama. Vakil, who posted photos on social media, said, “The collection was done by the teachers and students of the school.” Incidentally, before she became an MLA in 2012, Vakil also worked as a teacher in a school of the same educational group.