Till last month, the BJP was on the back foot in Madhya Pradesh. Then came Amit Shah, who not only unified a fractured BJP state unit but also warned that its progress will be evaluated by him on a daily basis from Delhi. One month on, with five Yatra planned in September, the BJP is back in the game. Now, Shah has taken it upon himself to do a Madhya Pradesh in Chhattisgarh where Bhupesh Baghel’s Congress government is brimming with confidence due to what is widely perceived as pro-incumbency.
Shah reached Chhattisgarh on July 22, held a closed-door meeting with top leadership of the state and left. Very little is known about what happened behind those closed doors. However, News18 has learnt what transpired in the meet.
GO LOCAL, ALLY LOCAL
Sources say Shah has stressed the importance of allying with local parties, which cannot even be called regional parties as some of them are not even recognised by the Election Commission. However, their foothold in certain areas of Chhattisgarh is unmistakable and important for a party like BJP to ally with.
One such political outfit that is under Shah’s consideration is Gondwana Ganatantra Party, which primarily caters to the Gondi tribe. The fact that its headquarter is based out of a village in the Korba district is suggestive enough of how local the party is. However, it has a substantial influence among the tribe, which the BJP wants to tap into.
Another such political outfit is based out of Maoist den Bastar. Former Congress veteran Arvind Netam, also the member of Chhattisgarh Sarva Adivasi Samaj — one of the state leading tribal bodies – formed an outfit last year. Netam had raised the issues of tribal rights even when he was in Congress, and alleged that Bastar was witnessing large-scale iron mining. Shah wants to exploit his tenacity in the region to BJP’s favour.
Interestingly, while addressing the 38 parties of NDA in a meeting in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said all parties were equal in the alliance.
SURVEYS, FEEDBACK & 2 DECISIONS
To gauge public mood or winnability of candidates, a number of field surveys are learnt to have been ordered while a few are already works in progress.
Seats, where BJP is unlikely to win, have few candidates asking for tickets, while many are eyeing constituencies with a reassuring track record – understandably so. However, Shah wants to know what the public mood is in those respective Lok Sabha constituencies through the surveys.
Moreover, Shah is learnt to have asked all 12 leaders present in the meeting about the probable candidates from the seats that most leaders are considering. “There was no one-to-one. Everyone’s suggestion of names was publicly discussed in the meeting,” said a BJP source present in the meeting.
Election in charge for Chhattisgarh Om Mathur, co in charge Mansukh Mandaviya were present in the meet apart from former chief minister and national vice-president Raman Singh, state president Arun Shaw, Leader of Opposition Narayan Chandel among others.
While no formal word is out but two things are almost certain after Shah’s last Chhattisgarh tour, insist sources. One, those above 75 years of age will not be given a ticket even as an aberration has happened in few states in the past. Two, Raman Singh in all likelihood will be the CM face of BJP. “Doctor Saab (as Raman Singh is referred to in Chhattisgarh) has an enviable track record of developmental governance. Coupled with that, we have Modi ji’s two terms. It is almost certain we will go to poll with these two faces,” said one BJP leader, who attended the closed-door meeting, on condition of anonymity.
The BJP feels that it has brought back the narrative in its favour, in a month’s time, in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. But, in Chhattisgarh, even party insiders feel it still has an uphill task ahead.
But with Shah taking charge of their election strategy, who knows what’s in store, a month down the lane?
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