Still Backing The Halo

PM Narendra Modi remains the party’s biggest vote-catcher, and this election he will be in action in a digital avatar too. A role is also planned for beneficiaries of central schemes

- Uday Mahurkar

THE CENTRAL BJP has chalked out a multi pronged strategy to neutralise anti-incumbency in the three major states going to the polls—Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan—though it’s finding the going difficult in the last. The party’s main strategy remains the same, Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the central mascot for voters while satrap and BJP chief Amit Shah plays commander for the party workers.

Shah’s strategy in keeping the opposition divided is already visible in his backroom tactics—the way the mahagathbandhan moves of the opposition were dashed, Mayawati’s BSP deciding not to join hands with the Congress in MP and Chhattisgarh. It is also visible in the way Ajit Jogi’s party went with the BSP instead of the Congress in Chhattisgarh to make the contest three-cornered, vastly improving the incumbent BJP’s chances in the state.

THE WEAK LINK

Significantly, the successful last-mile delivery of the PM’s welfare and infrastructure schemes remains the Centre’s mainstay in the three states. The strategy for Rajasthan, though, has been tweaked as the central BJP sees it as a weak state considering the high anti incumbency against Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje (compared to her counterparts Shivraj Singh Chouhan in MP and Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh). Rajasthan’s voting history too has been taken into account; power has changed hands between the Congress and BJP every five years here while the saffron party has been in power for 15 years in the other two states.