MP LS elections: Behind ‘record’ polling in 3rd, 4th phase, massive mobilisation in BJP, from CM to booth worker

Bhopal: A highly efficient booth-level micro-management, fallout of mobilisation of BJP cadres in an ‘unprecedented scale’ in a short span of a week, had ensured a radical change in the polling scenario, from low voting in first two phases to high voter turnout in the two successive phases, in the just-concluded four-phase Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh.

After getting a nudge from the Union home minister Amit Shah over low polling in the first two phases of LS polls in Madhya Pradesh, held on April 19 and April 26, the state leadership fine-tuned its strategies to boost polling in the final two phases of elections.

“We have adopted some innovative strategies to motivate and mobilise cadres particularly the booth-level workers to enhance polling in their respective polling booths”, state BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma said on Saturday.

Sources said that the party had analyzed the low polling in the first two phases and attributed it to the ‘indifference’ of cadres including MLAs developed by complacency in them following the narrative on party’s emphatic poll victory built by the BJP.

All the BJP MLAs and senior leaders of the party were later assigned with the task of contacting booth level workers at five am on the polling day on May seven, when the third phase polling was held in the state, to ensure that their ‘targeted’ voters cast vote in the first hour itself.

“Their activities were being monitored digitally to ensure that the strategy to enhance voting was executed”, the BJP leader said.

In fact, chief minister Mohan Yadav and state party president Vishnu Dutt Sharma led from the front calling the party MLAs on phone at six in the morning on the polling day to wake them up and get them engaged in their assigned responsibilities, sources said.

The party MLAs and other leaders in turn contacted the grass root level members of the booth committees and ‘panna pramukhs’ (in-charges of list of voters given to them) to mobilise voters.

“Our efforts had paid off. The third and fourth phase had witnessed record polling since 1952 barring the 2019 LS elections”, state BJP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal told this newspaper.

The average polling in the third phase, when nine LS seats had gone to elections, increased to 66.05 percent, a whopping rise by 10.68 percent over the second phase polling in the state.

Similar strategy was also adopted in the fourth and final phase in which eight LS seats went to polls, leading the average polling in the phase to reach a record 71.72 percent.

The party think tank had divided the polling booths going to polls in the third and fourth phases into three categories, A, B, and C.

While the A category booths are considered BJP strongholds, the party faced stiff challenges from its rivals in booths coming under B category.

The C category booths are dominated by minorities and considered ‘lost hope’ for BJP in the elections.

“We had focused mainly on B and C categories of booths to increase polling”, a BJP functionary said.

In an innovative strategy, the party established call centres to call voters, particularly the beneficiaries of different welfare schemes of the state government and the Centre, on the polling day to persuade them to vote.

In another innovative strategy, the party set up a women's war room to reach out to the women voters to cast ballots.