Shah takes charge of party’s campaign in state

NEW DELHI: On Thursday, when the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the polling schedule for the coming Gujarat assembly polls, Union home minister Amit Shah was in a meeting with senior leaders in Ahmedabad outlining the party’s election strategy. For the past two months, Shah’s itinerary has been packed with meetings either in Gujarat or with leaders from the state in Delhi, to chalk out the election strategy for the party that is aiming for its seventh straight win in the state.

According to people familiar with the details, Shah , the party’s chief electoral strategist , has already met state unit leaders from all the 182 assembly constituencies and has minute details about issues that the party is likely to face in each constituency in the two-phase election. He also has feedback on legislators and on areas where the party will need to redouble its efforts.

Elections will take place on December 1 and 5 in Gujarat.

“The objective of these meetings (over the two months) was to lay the basics of the organisational mechanism and draw up the core strategy for the upcoming assembly election. The meetings also helped identify loopholes if any, and address concerns of disgruntled individuals. He also used these meetings as a forum to invigorate the cadre and all that is needed is to strengthen the polling booths,” said one of the people cited above, who asked not to be named.

The meetings, most of which were held in smaller groups, saw Shah seeking details about the issues in each constituency; how the possible candidates fare visa-vis the Opposition; and what can be done to take the edge off any issues that can be raised by the opponents.

This is not the first election being helmed by Shah after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014 and Narendra Modi, a three-time chief minister of Gujarat, was elected as Prime Minister. However, with the Aam Aadmi Party launching a highdecibel campaign in the state , the BJP wants to make sure nothing goes wrong. It also needs to better its 2017 performance, when its tally came down from 115 to 99, the people added.

In the backdrop of these challenges, Shah has spent 16 days in the last two months, addressing over 45 public and closed-door meetings. According to the person quoted above, between October 22 and 25, Shah held separate zonal organisational meetings — North, South, Central and Saurashtra.

“He has instructed the cadre to focus on converting the support on the ground into votes. At several meetings, he spoke about the acceptability of (PM Narendra) Modi and BJP across all sections and the Gujarat model of development and how the cadre needs to remind people that Gujarat is the country’s most developed state and the BJP’s role in making it so,” the person cited above added.

Over the course of the last two months, Shah has interacted with BJP office bearers, former office bearers, current and former lawmakers and legislators, members of panchayats and cooperatives. “These meetings are crucial in helping get a perspective for drafting the party strategy. In addition to these organisational meetings, his public engagements were primarily focused on creating awareness about the development agenda of PM Modi and his work in Gujarat as well as in the rest of the country,” the person said.

In 2017 , when the BJP went to polls in the state without declaring a chief ministerial candidate, Shah set the party the target of winning 150 seats. “With a team in place, including the then election in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, he ensured the setting up of Shakti Kendra and Panna Pramukhs at every booth; there were townhall meetings, door-to-door campaigns and a social media outreach to counter the Patidar agitation and placate the traders who were miffed with the taxation policies of the union government,” said a second functionary who too asked not to be named..

Amit Shah