New Delhi: Less than a year ago, when Amit Shah, BJP general secretary and possibly the closest political associate of Narendra Modi, came to Lucknow, the first thing he did was to head for a doctor.
An upset stomach and high fever meant the Gujarat strategist hit the UP campaign trail on a sick note. Days later as worried state leaders enquired of him, he exuded confidence and told some senior ones that he had his job cut out — delivering UP to Narendra Modi, now the prime minister-to-be. Nothing would deter him from doing so. Ten months later, he has emerged as the doctor who not only diagnosed the ailments plaguing the state BJP but also succeeded in treating them.
After registering a historic victory in Lok Sabha polls Narendra Modi applauded the work of his man Friday, Amit Shah. He said the party is fortunate to have Amit Shah as a party worker. He further added that Amit Shah managed to deliver 71 seats in Uttar Pradesh which was almost triple of what Congress secured in 30 states.
Modi was aware that Uttar Pradesh will prove to be the gamechanger in Lok Sabha Elections, if BJP was looking to achieve 272+ seats it had to hit the jackpot in U.P. that’s when he assigned his closest aide and master at political maneuvering to deliver Uttar Pradesh to BJP. Amit Shah changed the fate of BJP in the state of Uttar Pradesh within a span of ten months. The state known for communal and caste divide all voted in the favour of BJP.
Booth Committees
Uttar Pradesh had approximately 1.32 polling booths, as per the sources Amit Shah assigned a committee of 10 members to each of these booths. This ten member committee had four dalit members, two OBC members, two Brahmans and two RSS or VHP workers.
Apart from this Amit Shah initiated a scheme to involve more youth workers and people in the campaign, on of these schemes was ’20 youth per booth’. Under this scheme the members were to do ’door to door campaigning’ and ensure Modi wave reached out to the farthest and remotest corners of the state.
These members were also given responsibility of ensuring maximum number people turned out to vote on the polling day.
How did the polling booth committees operate?
When Amit Shah was assigned the task of gaining maximum seats in U.P, he was well aware of the fact that caste and community will play a major role in changing the voter share. He also knew BSP and SP have been contesting elections based on this strategy.
BJP’s booth committee spread the word that SP will only favour the Yadav community, while BSP only gives preference to Jatavs. In this scenario the Valmikis by design changed their inclination. Among the Yadavs a message was circulated that a subcaste of Yadavs- Dadhor was among the preferred when it came to Samajwadi Party because Akhilesh Yadav himself belonged to the subcaste. With this strategy Amit Shah successfully bagged the votes non- Dadhor Yadavs in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Development and Hindutva key issue, Ram Mandir didn't find a mention
For the party to garner Hindu votes the booth committees ensured the core ideology of the party wasn’t lost but they interspersed talks of development along with their ideology. The party did not mention Ram Mandir throughout their campaigning knowing it will draw flak from opposition and the prospective voters whose outlook was development and not the formation of the temple. Though the party’s rhetoric was evident when in a rally close to Ayodhya, Modi’s dais background displayed a huge image of Lord Ram.
Booth committees suggested the names of the probable candidates
Amit Shah assigned the booth committees the task of suggesting 5 names of probable candidates. This list was then discussed with Modi and Rajnath Singh after which two more names were added to the existing list of five people and returned to the booth committees.
Amit Shah then asked the booth committees to finalise three names out of the 7. The list of three finalized candidates was again discussed with Modi and Rajnath and then the final decision on the candidate was taken.
Though most of the candidates did not belong to the region to curb any rebellion in the party and avoid obstruction and bad blood, Amit Shah gave the responsibility to curbing these rebellions to a more bigger and stronger leader, by doing so the task was carried out smoothly.
Amit Shah further gave the responsibility of managing poll camnpaigning and garnering maximum votes for the candidates to the local leaders.
Booth committees decided on the location of Modi’s rallies
As the booth committees were looking into the minute details and doing the major ground work, Amit Shah entrusted them with the task of suggesting the rally location for Narendra Modi after which he discussed it with Modi and finalized the venue of the rally.
All the party workers and the booth committee members were assigned the task of getting ten other people along with them at the rally. If the workers were driving down to the rally venue then the car had to be packed with people and if the members were riding a bike then the member had to get two other people on the bike with them.
After the rally all the members were given a briefing about a Modi’s mission so that they can go back to their areas and propagate it further.
Amit Shah’s controversial statement during campaigning
Amit Shah was in news for making a controversial statement in the riot-hit area of Muzaffarnagar right before the constituency went for polls.
He spoke of taking revenge subsequent to which EC banned him from holding any rallies. Later Shah retracted his statement and clarified by revenge he meant—seeking revenge for rampant corruption and loot of public money.
‘Namo chariots’ used for campaigning
‘Modi chariots’ travelled to 403 Vidhan Sabha constituencies and campaigned for Modi, reaching out to the remotest parts of the country’s most populous and significant state.
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