Battleready

Lieutenants have been picked up, forces armed, and the battle cry sounded. For the BJP, its time to launch the onslaught! The recent nut-and-bolt session of the BJP in Nagpur was different in many ways — it helped party to take stock of the situation, plug the loopholes and prepare for the showdown.

It was during this meet that NDA’s Prime Ministerial candidate LK Advani identified his team, delegated election management responsibilities, spelt out party’s poll agenda and, most importantly, silenced rumors about a Genext divide in the saffron brigade.

Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj and almost all BJP CMs have found a place in Team Advani. Each of them has been delegated specific responsibility of states as part of the decentralised campaign proposed by Advani.

Advani and BJP chief Rajnath Singh also tried to clear the confusion over party’s poll agenda. BJP is confident, electoral losses in Delhi and Rajasthan do not necessarily mean that terrorism has failed as a poll issue. Both the senior BJP leaders asserted terrorism very much remained the party’s poll plank.

Despite the wide media coverage that Advani and Rajnath’s reference to the Ayodhya issue received, the BJP was categorical it can’t afford to give space to the controversial issue in the NDA’s agenda for governance. “Political resolve on a political platform not necessarily become a political agenda,” party’s spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy explained.

Also, there was a timely realisation within the party that a dipping inflation was not going to fit in the party’s scheme of things.

So instead of a terror plus inflation (this was decided in the executive meeting in Bangalore in September last) plank, BJP plans to make it a terror plus economic crisis plank. “Economic crisis would be clubbed with increasing prices of food grains,” BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley told The Pioneer.

Renowned psephologist GVL Narismha Rao, who was inducted into the BJP’s national executive in Nagpur, suggested the party to carry a “positive campaign” that highlights BJP and Advani’s resolve to deal with terrorism with an iron fist.

What trickled out of the closed-door meeting of BJP leaders in Nagpur

was apprehension about party’s performance in states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, which the BJP swept in the last LS polls.

To repeat the magic in its stronghold states, the BJP felt it needed stars. The BJP was correct in asking most of its Rajya Sabha members to throw their hats into the electoral ring. For the last few years, the party was without any worthy “talent” in the Lok Sabha. This forced Advani to bear the brunt of the UPA charges against the Opposition.

Now, when many members of the Rajya Sabha — Murli Manohar Joshi (Varanasi), Yashwant Sinha (Hazaribag), Sushma Swaraj (probably from Bhopal) are contesting the elections — the BJP expects they would influence the results of the neighbouring seats as well. Rajnath Singh and vice president MA Naqvi, whose term in the RS expired last November, are also contesting the polls from Ghaziabad and Rampur, respectively.

The party also seemed to have found the answer to Congress’ campaign about “Youth Leadership” — something that was aimed at pitting ‘young’ Rahul Gandhi against ‘experienced’ Advani.

It was Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who told the party not to nurse an “inferiority complex” and instead go all out to convince the voters that the average age of BJP CM, MPs and MLAs was less than that of the Congress’ and unlike the grand old party of India, BJP does not promote children of the first family and influential leaders.

It is expected the BJP’s offensive against Rahul Gandhi and the Nehru-Gandhi family would intensify with every passing day. Jaitley would be leading this war of nerves between the BJP and the Congress.

The BJP hopes the galaxy of leaders, right issues and good poll management would help it free the country from the “misrule” of the UPA. “Convince the voters that this government has to go for the good of the country. The fight is not to make Advani the Prime Minister or to bring the BJP back to Centre. It is to save the country and the voters,” Advani told the workers.

Moreover, with Advani making it clear that the seat sharing arrangement between the BJP and its allies would remain frozen — the NDA allies would share the seats according to the 2004 formula — it is now expected that the announcement of the names of the candidates for states like Bihar, Punjab, Orissa and Maharashtra would take place soon.

In any case, the BJP leadership has conveyed to the states, the seat it would contest and the names of the candidates should be finalised and announced before February 25. That would clearly give the party a big lead over its rival —the Congress — in building the election campaign.

Advani made the right move by decentralising the entire management affairs and distributing the entire battlefield in different zone, each looked after by his trusted lieutenants.

He, however will have to ensure there are no ego clashes and overlapping of jobs. There could be leaders who may find it difficult in working in states where satraps call the shots.

Moreover, with a certain overlapping (Madhya Pradesh would be looked after by Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar, both), utmost care should be taken that such cases do not take a toll on election management.

The party is faced with the challenge of making rivals to work in tandem (Rajya Sabha member BS Koshiyari would look after election management in Uttarakhand of which his bete-noire BC Khanduri is the Chief Minister).

The BJP is also faced with the challenge of limiting the leaders of the party having “shifting loyalties” and “nuisance values”. For them the message came loud and clear from Advani: don’t score self goals, it will harm you more than the party.

The BJP expects to maintain the momentum it generated at its Nagpur conclave and take it more vigorously forward till the mega finals.

THE LIEUTENANTS

Arun Jaitley

He has emerged as the most trusted aide of LK Advani, who wants the party’s charismatic general secretary to handle the election management of two most crucial states — Bihar and Uttar Pradesh — besides Delhi, Punjab and Chandigarh. Seen as the man with the Midas touch, Jaitley would be overseeing the election management of the party on close to 150 parliamentary seats. In addition, he would be pressed into service for raising funds for the party to meet election expenses, a job he has been doing for a while. Jaitley is not contesting the elections.

M Venkaiah Naidu

Advani wants the former BJP president pave the way for BJP to make inroads in south India. Naidu is also looking after election management for close to 100 seats in

Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Another leader who has been entrusted with the responsibility to raise funds for the party, Naidu’s main task is to revive the party in Andhra Pradesh, his home state. He will also not contest the elections.

Sushma Swaraj

A Rajya Sabha member, the fiery diva will be the BJP candidate from Bhopal. It’s after a long time that she has been entrusted with some important assignments by way of looking after election management in MP, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, accounting for over 50 Lok Sabha seats. BJP is expecting to bag a majority of seats at stake in this region. The popularity of chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan (MP) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) will come in good stead for her. BJP, which has no representation from Jharkhand, is expecting a reversal of fortunes big way given the muddle in the State.

Narendra Modi

From being dropped from the BJP’s parliamentary board in 2007 to emerging
as the star campaigner of the BJP in 2008, Modi’s growing stature, with leading captains of India Inc too recently dubbing him Prime Ministerial material, has now earned him the responsibility of election management in Maharashtra and Goa besides his home turf. The BJP is expecting to reap the dividends of Modi’s popularity both by way of his image as a role model for development and a Hindutva hardliner.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Emerging as the OBC face of the BJP; after Kalyan Singh’s exit, the soft-spoken Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister has won many praises from Advani for repeating the magic that once Narendra Modi did — coming back to power. In Advani’s own words Shivraj’s performance is significant given that he got a stint of just two years before facing the elections. Shivraj’s pro-people schemes, especially for girl child and women, had been a great hit. He is now been asked to look after his state and repeat the 2004 performance — BJP won 25 out of 29 seats.

BS Yeddyurappa

He is the first CM of the BJP in any South Indian state. Strongly backed by the RSS, he emerged as the leader of farmers during the BJP-JD(S) government and helped BJP form a government on its own in the state. BJP has stood behind him as he continues facing problems, administratively and personally. Elections approaching, BJP is banking on him to improve its tally (BJP bagged 18 out of total 28 seats in the 2004 elections). The party feels his magic may bring electoral dividends to the party in regions of AP and Kerala, sharing borders with Karnataka.

Raman Singh

The sauve, low-profile and baby-faced Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh joined the ranks of Narendra Modi and Shivraj Singh Chouhan to retain power. His populist measures earned him the sobriquet of chaur wale baba and popularised him among both tribals and non-tribals. His clean and pro-development image too are his strength. These prompted Advani to take him on board. The BJP had bagged nine of the 10 seats in the tribal state last time. His job is to ensure the BJP fortress in Chhattisgarh isn’t dented.

THE ISSUES

Economic Crisis

BJP strategists believe the economic crisis would be a better poll issue than inflation to strike the right chord with the electorate. For, inflation is slowly getting under control and the situation is expected only to improve in the coming months, especially, when India would be electing its government. That will not make a poll issue. Instead, the BJP assessment is that the global meltdown’s impact on India would worsen in time to come and by the time election approaches the economic crisis would have wrecked havoc. Millions of small time investors (either in the stock market or other tools of market linked investment) would lose their money and no less a number would lose their jobs. The affected segment would be the middle class and the youths, BJP’s core support base.

Mahatma Gandhi

Many attributed BJP’s defeat in 2004 to the “disconnect” between party and the “real India”. So this time the party is taking utmost care to do the balancing act. When BJP chief Rajnath Singh objected to Congress’ “rights” over Gandhi and his economic model, his strategists pointed out it was a well-calculated move to shed the BJP’s image of being a party of the capitalists. With global meltdown taking its toll on India, BJP has proposed an economic model based on the philosophies of the Mahatma and Sangh patriarch Deen Dayal Upadhyay — empowering the villages and villagers.

Security

Party feels security continues to remain a poll issue. However, some strategists advised party leadership to bank on a “positive campaign” - highlighting the NDA strategy of dealing terrorism with an “iron fist”. After electoral debacles in Delhi and Rajasthan, there were demands from certain quarters from within the party to reconsider the decision of making terrorism a poll issue. The BJP had lost both the states, wherein elections were held amidst a high pitched election campaign over the 26/11 Mumbai strike. However, LK Advani is of the opinion that India is still “insecure” and the electorate have to be convinced that the country was not safe
in the hands of a “soft UPA”.

Infrastructure

The BJP will go all out against the UPA government for derailing major infrastructure projects initiated by the previous Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. BJP’s poll managers feel people still remember the achievement that the previous NDA government had made in the national highway development programme. Most of these programmes, including the interlinking of rivers, have now been put on the backburner and the BJP is expected to come out with poll assurances to complete all these unfinished works if voted to power.

Governance

BJP’s poll campaign will also be critical of the UPA’s misrule, the rampant corruption under the present regime and the government’s attempt to make the constitutional office subservient. The cash-for-vote scandal, misuse of the CBI for haunting the rivals of UPA and help its friends, compromise of election commission’s independence by refusing to act against the “biased” election commissioner Navin Chawla and many more would be part of BJP’s poll campaign. Advani said if voted to power, the NDA government will ensure the Prime Minister and his ministerial colleagues disclose the details of their and their family members’ assets once in a year.

Youth

The party will make every attempt to take the wind out of the Congress’ sail, which aims at bringing the issue of ‘Youth Leadership’ at the centrestage. Not only the BJP will counter through its poll campaign the argument that Congress leadership was younger than that of the BJP, it will go all out to project Congress Gen X as the group that got entry into the politics on “compassionate ground”.

Ram Temple

This has always been an emotive issue for the BJP and its workers. So this time the party consciously chose to make a reference to the vexed Ayodhya issue with both Rajnath Singh and LK Advani reiterating the party’s commitment to construct the Ram Temple at the disputed site, whenever the BJP comes to power on its own. While party strategists admit the BJP will not make the Ram Temple a poll issue, they say the BJP leaders’ reference to the issue was meant to send signals to the party cadre and its core support base that the party has not dumped the issue, which led to its phenomenal rise in the Indian politics.