Amit Shah warns cadres that 2024 is not that easy for BJP
Union Home Minister Amit Shah lost his cool on eight Union Ministers who had not risen to the expectations of the Central leadership of the BJP. Jagat Prakash Nadda BJP Chief is understood to have sought these eight Union Ministers be warned of their losing Ministerial position if they did not fulfill the tasks assigned to them for going around the 85 Parliamentary Constituencies in six states.
Tasking three senior Union Ministers for more party work, Amit Shah ensured that three top Opposition leaders must be politically, electorally, and morally too to be defeated. Amit Shah told in the meeting that Sharad Pawar in Baramati, and Uddhav Thackrey‘s strongholds in Maharashtra to be breached, and KCR to be held to Telangana itself. Not to move out of his state. For this Amit Shah has chosen Nirmala Sitharaman to throttle Supriya Sule and Kavita the daughters of Shared Pawar and also KCR. This is a master strategy. On a weekly basis, Amit Shah will interact with these three Ministers. Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, and Jyotiriaditya Scindia.
“Animal spirit” of Amit Shah, according to a participant of September 6 meeting felt that first time the source witnessed red faced Amit Shah that if BJP does not win 2024, there will be a backlash, let us not allow Hindutva to be defeated, nor buried. BJP also felt that incomplete construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, granting of the status of Statehood for Kashmir will be derailed. A mega action plan is drawn out by Amit Shah, that would ensure BJP and Modi return to power in 2024. Summing up the deliberations was done by J P Nadda that the anger and anguish shown by Amit Shah are all due to his experience in conducting 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2022 elections two of them were Lok Sabha and the other two were the elections of Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Master of social engineering Amit Shah is, he has a different plan of action for 2024. Which he has not spelled out. Before Diwali, Amit Shah is likely to hold such a high-level meeting in Kolkata to review the Lok Sabha seats where BJP lost. Himanta Biswa Sarma has been given the role of NE coordinator.
Stressing on the target of winning at least 72 of the 144 seats, Shah said during the meeting, according to those with knowledge of the matter, “This is quite possible. You all are experienced leaders who have contested several elections and have worked in the party at different levels. ” The second phase of the plan will start in October.
The 15-page presentation listed the 144 Lok Sabha seats, including key constituencies held by the opposition such as Rae Bareli and Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh, Baramati in Maharashtra, Jadavpur in West Bengal, Mahabubnagar in Telangana, and Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.
The strategy entailed the involvement of senior Union ministers, including their stay in the constituencies, with a detailed plan to take stock of the situation, prepare data based on voters’ profiles and issues, and channelize the party cadre at the lower level.
The first phase of the programme was to be completed by August-end, but the deadline has been extended by a month.
The BJP is working on a multi-pronged plan to win at least half of the 144 Lok Sabha seats it has not won in recent elections, as part of a strategy to repeat, if not improve upon, its 2019 tally of 303 seats.
In the 2019 general election, the party had won 21 seats more than it had won in 2014. The idea behind the plan to focus on 144 seats is that if the party loses a few seats in some states, it should be able to at least make up for the shortfall by winning new seats.
This happened at September 6 meeting, most of the ministers were of the view that continuing to reach out to the beneficiaries, especially SCs and other backward classes, would be of great benefit to the party in these Lok Sabha seats. In the next phase, the party has tasked the ministers with identifying suitable candidates for the 144 Lok Sabha seats. The party will also communicate to the local leadership to regularly organize protests, highlighting local issues in seats falling in opposition-ruled states. Special media in-charges will be appointed in each Lok Sabha seat who will coordinate with media organizations. The team will also try to convince the local media houses which are against the BJP. The social media team will be given a target of adding at least 50,000 followers on the social media pages of these 144 Lok Sabha seats by December this year.
BJP general secretary (organization), B L Santhosh set the plan in motion when he made a presentation to the party leaders about two years ahead of the next general election.
The Mega Plan
BJP planned to deploy three layers of leaders who will work in these seats for the next 18 months. First, a Central committee composed of national leaders will supervise the entire programme.
Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda, and B L Santhosh are the Central committee leaders supervising the programme. The second was a state committee with senior leaders of the states who will execute the directions on the ground. The third was a cluster committee, where Central ministers are directly involved in overseeing activities and coordinating between central and state committees.
About 40 Union ministers were given charge of clusters of two to three Lok Sabha seats or even one Lok Sabha seat in certain cases.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been made in-charge of Baramati, the family bastion of Sharad Pawar currently held by his daughter Supriya Sule. Narendra Singh Tomar is in-charge of Rae Bareli, the seat represented by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. Dharmendra Pradhan is in-charge of a few Lok Sabha seats in north Bengal, including the Jadhavpur seat, currently held by the All India Trinamool Congress. Giriraj Singh is the in-charge of Chhindwara, a family bastion of Congress leader Kamal Nath. He is also in-charge of Korba and Bastar in Chhattisgarh and Nabrangpur in Odisha. Ashwini Vaishnaw is in-charge of Saharanpur, Nagina, and Bijnor in UP.
Under the programme, the ministers will spend one night every 15 days in each Lok Sabha constituency. The idea is to cover all assembly segments in two-three months. The frequency of ratri pravas or night stay will increase with time.
In the first phase, the leaders were asked to prepare the database of voters based on caste, issues in favour of and against the party, and a dossier highlighting the weak assembly segments, election forecast, and caste equations.
On September 6, a review meeting was held at the BJP office where leaders of the Central committee took stock of the progress of the first phase. The progress was considered to be satisfactory, except in a few states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Home Minister Amit Shah told the Union ministers during the meeting that party work should be taken seriously since “Sangathan se hi sarkar hai” (the government exists because of the party organization).
Most of the ministers have completed ratri pravas. During their stay, the ministers interacted with the Mandal level party workers, checked the progress of Central government schemes for beneficiaries, and introduced development projects needed in the area. When Vaishnav visited Saharanpur he came to know of a long-pending demand for a train from Delhi to Saharanpur. A new train is going to run on the route this month. He also announced that facilities at Saharanpur station will be upgraded for better passenger service.
The ministers were also advised to have lunch at party workers’ residences during their stay, preferably workers belonging to Scheduled Castes, to showcase connection with the community. Several ministers such as Pradhan, Vaishnav, and Mahendra Nath Pandey posted their pictures having lunch on social media.
As the first phase nears completion, the BJP has prepared a complete voter profile of most of the 144 Lok Sabha seats.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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Why should we, as citizens must bear with this nonsense of ‘Election-mode’ BJP? The Prime Minister and other Ministers’ chairs are full time and they are responsible for running the Government efficiently round the clock. If these ministers are to campaign for their party it is detrimental and prejudiced to their portfolios