Dual Strike

BJP plans to replicate Amit Shah’s Gujarat strategy involving party cadres and senior leaders to wrest power in poll-bound states

- Pratul Sharma

On December 18, the BJP headquarters at 11 Ashoka Road in Delhi was buzzing, but with anxiety. The early trends of the Gujarat assembly elections, oscillating between a victory and a narrow margin, had kept BJP strategists on tenterhooks. Celebrations were kept on hold. It was only at noon that the first firecrackers were burst, when the winning seats tally hovered around 100.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the party headquarters in the evening, he told the waiting supporters, “It was not a usual victory, it was an unusual one.” The party chief’s efforts, strategy and ability to recognise hard work had brought us here, he said.

Those who saw the Gujarat campaign from close quarters understood the import of Modi’s words. “What separated us from near defeat was Amit Shah’s machinery and Modi’s emotional appeal as he used the comments of [Congress leaders] Kapil Sibal and Mani Shankar Aiyar to his advantage. If one of these factors were to be taken out, it would have been a different situation,” a BJP functionary said.

Understanding the Gujarat battle will give clues about the things to come in the next 15 months before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. What worries the BJP the most now is that Rahul Gandhi has emerged as a worthy challenger. Rahul challenged Modi on his home turf, and therefore created the perception that Modi could be challenged anywhere. And, with three BJP-ruled states— Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh—going to the polls in 2018, Shah’s war machinery is likely to work on meeting any challenge from the Congress or regional leaders.