PRASHANT JHA

NEW DELHI: On Wednesday evening, the BJP parliamentary board met in New Delhi to decide on tickets for the Gujarat elections.

The discussions happened, but the announcement of the tickets was held up. And in that meeting and delay perhaps lies a story of how extraordinarily important ticket distribution is to the prospects of both the BJP and the Congress in the Gujarat election of 2017.

The BJP is not only deploying its traditional tools and methods to get its own ticket distribution right. It is banking very heavily on Congress getting it wrong and was, in fact, hoping that the Congress would announce its tickets first so that the party could respond accordingly. That could, party sources hint, explain the partial delay in announcement. But first the background.

The absence of a single overarching issue across the state’s multiple regions, the presence of a complicated caste matrix, fissures in social coalitions of both the BJP (whose Patidar supporters are reportedly drifting away) and Congress (whose tribal voters may be shifting loyalties), and narrow margins have made each seat a distinct battle this time around.

To be sure, ticket distribution is central to every poll.

Three broad trends in BJP’S ticket distribution strategy across states are now clear.

One, party chief Amit Shah is personally involved in the exercise based on consultations with state party president, chief minister, top leaders and organisation general secretary.

Feedback on each seat is drawn from multiple channels — local party unit, the Sangh Pari-