Know how Amit Shah helped BJP make comeback in Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: Bharatiya Janata Party’s astounding victory in Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh has come as a surprise for many. It is pertinent to note that Narendra Modi’s charisma had little to do with it and it was his confidante – Amit Shah’s efforts and strategies - that helped the saffron party sweep the state. BJP-led NDA’s tally in Uttar Pradesh rose to 73 from a dismal 10 in 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Also, BJP was out of power for almost two decades in Uttar Pradesh and it did not have a popular face, like Vasundhara Raje (in Rajasthan) or Shivraj Singh Chouhan (in Madhya Pradesh). According to reports, Amit Shah took over the election campaign preparations at the behest of BJP national president Rajnath Singh.

India Today reports: Singh's brief to Shah, who waded into the mess, was simple: Restore the old grandeur of BJP. The party gives you full freedom to take decisions and act." Having been appointed as the party general secretary in May 2013, Shah travelled 9,300 kilometres by road and rail, spreading Modi's message and developmental vision to almost 33 per cent of the 80,000 villages in Uttar Pradesh. He started by holding meetings with the losing MPs and MLAs in nine different zones of the state, which he himself decided, and read out the causes of their defeat. One of his first decisions was to restore the caste balance in the state. He found out that BJP supporters were hijacked by other parties including the Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP), whose leader Mayawati allegedly practised the politics of grafting Brahmins on to the Dalit and OBC vote-bank of late BSP leader Kanshi Ram. Shah also played on communal polarisation in western Uttar Pradesh, recently scarred by deadly riots. He fielded three party leaders named in riot cases and made an incendiary speech in Muzaffarnagar, the epicentre of the riots, earning a temporary ban from campaigning from the Election Commission.