Sunil Gatade
The newly appointed BJP President Amit Shah has a meteoric rise in the party to become the youngest chief of an organization which, rightly or wrongly, boasted of as a party with a difference.
Shah, who has a controversial past, has earned the post by the dint of his hard work and showing spectacular organizational and strategic skills.
It is not without reason that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has described him as “Man of the Match” in the Lok Sabha elections.
The rare praise by Modi is a proof enough of the capability of Amit Shah as an organizer of the BJP and the miracle he showed in Uttar Pradesh.
BJP and its allies have won 73 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, which was the key charge of Shah. Prime Minister’s remarks showed that if Uttar Pradesh had not been won by Shah, then good days would not have come to either BJP or Modi.
The stockbroker-turned-politician was a no nonsense guy for the partymen in Uttar Pradesh who had not found such a hard taskmaster in life. Bear phase and bullish.
Shah being brought as party chief has a strategic significance for the Prime Minister in view of the fact that the development meant that both the Government and the organization will work in tandem.
While it is no longer the case, the problem for the BJP traditionally had been that once it won in a state, it had failed to win for the second time. It failed to hold on to the victory. However, in the last 15 years BJP has maintained its dominance in some states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
But the challenge has remained huge. BJP has failed to make inroads in the entire Northeast, West Bengal as also Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In states like Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana, it has played the second fiddle to powerful regional allies and similar has been the case in the undivided and divided Andhra Pradesh.
While the Vajpayee-Advani duo which held sway over the party since its inception in 1980 had ensured power for six long years at the Centre via the coalition route, the tactics and the strategy of the party should and would change now that it has achieved virtually the impossible-power on its own strength in New Delhi.
Shah is not unaware of the challenges before the organization as he told the just held National Council meet of the party that the huge win of the party under Modi has also changed the situation for the BJP in a very different way. Indian polity had so far witnessed the phenomenon of “Congress versus others”, now with the decimation of the Grand Old Party, it could see a “BJP versus others” phenomenon.
The burden of Shah’s song was that whether the BJP likes or not, it will have to face different challenges from all sides now it has occupied the centrestage of Indian politics. This calls for vigil and alertness at all times as also hard work to maintain the pre-eminent position.
It needs to be noted that neither Shah nor Modi took the name of any of the BJP allies at the National Council meet. Shah also underlined the need for the BJP to win in the upcoming Assembly elections in all the four states-Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.
Barring J and K, BJP has allies in the remaining states including powerful ones like Shiv Sena in Maharashtra where BJP has done pillion riding for the past 25 years or so.
The Modi wave in the Lok Sabha polls has changed all this. The BJP wants to change the name of the game in the states by having the dominant position, but it is not saying so explicitly.
The message of Shah’s stewardship of the BJP is that the saffron party will be feverishly aggressive while expanding its reach, spread and hold. Shah has learnt the tricks of the trade under Modi who has made Gujarat an invincible fort for the BJP in less than 15 years.
After reaping the harvest at the Centre by playing up the Gujarat model, BJP wants to replicate the Gujarat experiment in states slowly but surely.
An indication of this strategy is reflective from the fact that Shah and Modi are going for young faces to build up the organization in the states with the old giving way willingly or unwillingly. The job of likes of veterans like L K Advani or Murli Manohar Joshi is now just to give the blessings to the younger lot. Several seniors have already been accommodated in the Raj Bhawans and the process is on to send few others to gubernatorial assignments.
It will be a long haul of Modi at the Centre, at least that is the hope, expectation and attempt of the BJP. If the party wants to get entrenched at the Centre, the party must remain young and vibrant in the states and grow at a fast pace conquering uncharted territories.
This is the message of Modi bringing in Shah at the helm of the organization by persuading the RSS that the BJP ideology could become dominant in the nation if the likes of Amitbhai is given the mantle of the party.
Amitbhai Shah may not be in the Government but has emerged as the second most powerful leader in the BJP. If he uses his new responsibility with a mix of tact, persuasion and occasional aggression like a Gujarati salesman, he could make the BJP most powerful party.
Advani, who brought BJP to the centrestage of national politics some 20 years back on the issue of the Ayodhya movement, had pitched for a “killer instinct” in partymen to make it strong. Modi has found an ideal man for the way ahead for the BJP.
Only time will tell how Shah will deliver but one thing is absolutely clear, he has sent alarm bells in the camp of rivals.
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