BJP cut into Cong gains and changed the poll narrative

JUST WHEN OPPOSITION STARTED CORNERING BJP ON ‘LACK OF VIKAS’, MANI SHANKAR AIYAR’S ‘NEECH AADMI’ REMARK ON MODI PROVIDED THE PARTY AN OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE NARRATIVE

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Na rendra Modi’s popularity might be credited with orchestrating the BJP’s win in Gujarat, but the backdoor strategies formed to weaken the Congress and push the party’ s narrative also played a key role in beating nearly two decades of anti-incumbency.

COUNTERING CONG

Apart from engineering defections in the Congress camp, which led to Ahmed Patel barely scrapping to a win in August’s Rajya Sabha elections, the BJP also sought to clean up its own stable by denying tickets to about onethird sitting legislators who were perceived to be unpopular.

As the Congress successfully tapped into the Pat id ar quota agitation, the B JP responded by giving 49 out of 182 tickets to the community’ s members. The saffron party simultaneously made an aggressive pitch to woo the OB Cs, giving 57 tickets to its members .

With growing signs of disenchantment creeping in the industrial clusters over Goods and Services Tax (GST) roll-out, the ruling party went into an over drive to mollify traders by reducing GST rates on certain items and public is in gt he long-term benefits of the indirect tax regime.

RE SHAPING NARRATIVE

Just when the Opposition appeared to be cornering the B JP with its focus on the‘ lack of development’ ,Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s “neech aadmi” remark on Modi provided the right-wing party an opportunity to change the narrative.

The BJP, which has mastered the strategy of making political gains out of verbal slip ups, launched a campaign to project Aiyar’s remark as an insult to backward classes. The Prime Minister was quick to link the comment with Gujarat’ s‘ as mi ta’ (pride), resulting in the debate over Ai ya r’ sji be overshadowing theo neon development before the first phase of polling. There were also intermittent attempts to pol arise the debate over then Congress vice-president Rahul Gand hi’ s visits to temples—especially on him allegedly registering as a non-Hindu before entering the Somnath-temple—to-ensure-than the Congress does gain dividends from it’ s‘ soft Hindutva’ approach.

PATRIOTISM PLANK

While building upon the‘ Gujarati as mi ta’ plank, the B JP also sought to indirectly question the Congress’ patriotism by indirectly suggesting that the grand old party had conspired with Pakistan in order to ensure its victory in the state polls. To implement these eleventh-hour strategy changes, the BJP needed a welloiled organisational machinery down to the grassroots, something which it has been able to form largely under the supervision of party president Amit Shah.