Communal card: Rattled Congress's last desperate try to derail Modi

The absence of Amit Shah's name in the second chargesheet of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is yet another shot in the arm of the

. The principal opposition party has now taken on the

, accusing it of trying to stop

's march towards the Delhi throne by any means.

[Read: Ishrat Jahan encounter case: Amit Shah not named in CBI chargesheet]

The BJP has also suspected connection between the second CBI chargesheet, Union minister Kapil Sibal's direct attack on Modi over the Gujarat riots in the Parliament and the recent charges against RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat of abetting terror activities.

According to the party, the Congress is making a desperate attempt to derail Modi in the run up to the Lok Sabha election due in another two months.

The Congress is trying to adopt a strategy it had taken during the 2007 Guj poll

The Congress has clearly run out of ideas to tackle Modi now. After a series of election debacle, the retreat of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from the battlefield, reports of friction in its alliance, pathetic predictions by various pre-poll surveys and a disastrous interview of its face of the future Rahul Gandhi, the Congress seems to have lost its road inside the dark tunnel. And the more it is getting cornered, the more it is targetting Modi to survive another day.

Trying to adopt the strategy of 2007 Gujarat assembly polls

The Congress versus Modi episode in the run-up to the big fight is resembling the Gujarat assembly election of 2007. That year, it had tried to reverse its fortunes in Gujarat by demonising Modi as the 'merchant of death'. But yet it fell flat on its face.

The Congress is trying to repeat the same this time. Even its top leadership couldn't resist the temptation of attacking Modi on communal lines. While Rahul Gandhi made vague statements alleging Modi's hand behind the 2002 riots, Sonia Gandhi mentioned about 'cultivating poison' at a rally in Karnataka a few days ago. Even an otherwise silent Manmohan Singh launched a scathing attack on Modi at his January 3 press meeting, saying Modi as prime minister would be a disaster for India. There is no wonder in the fact that the rest of the Congress has closely followed the top brass of the centralised outfit.

By calling Modi communal, it is the Congress which is trying to polarise votes

The irony is that polarisation of votes is the last hope for the Congress and not Modi in this election. In a surprising turn of events, while Modi has undertaken an initiative to stitch a social and political coalition together to make his Mission 272 a success, the Congress is eager to create a rift in the votebank with a hope to weaken Modi's prospects. The Aam Aadmi Party, like a true 'ally' of the Congress, is also trying to divide the urban votebank of Modi and the BJP.

Call him communal but not chaiwala: Congress top brass's calculated attack?

The Congress's top leadership has also asked the subordinates not to make loose remarks against the opponents. The Congress and some of its allies have been found taking a jibe at Modi over his humble origin and it has only made the support for Modi stronger. The Congress wants to polarise votes through the old attack on communal lines and not help Modi's votebank grow stronger by insensible chaiwala mocks.

Is 2002 fading fast for the Congress?

But despite all these efforts, 2002 is getting more distant with each passing day. The way Modi has advanced on the way to establish himself as a leader with a pan-Indian image, the decade-old riots may not qualify as a determining factor in this year's Lok Sabha election at all. The Congress needs to think of a new strategy to deal with Modi.