New Delhi: A campaign built systematically around the nationalism plank and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity, coupled with “pro-incumbency” of his government, supervised by a “master strategist” working 24X7 and a political organisation which was perpetually in an election mode since 2014, resulted in the 2019 ‘NaMo Tsunami 2:0.’ Hailed by many as a “master strategist,” BJP president Amit Shah made sure that the entire campaign is built around the party’s ‘Modi Vs None’ narrative and ended up succesfully trapping the Opposition camp in its poll narrative. For many in the BJP, the 2019 election was an electoral battle between ‘Modi supporters Vs Modi opponents.’
It was perhaps for the first time that the ruling party’s poll narrative overshadowed all other issues and did not let the “game spoilers” - caste arithemetic and caste combination — upset saffron party’s poll prospects. Even issues like rural and dalit distress, unemployment and upset farming community, which used to hog the political discourse, did not make any impact during the entire campaiging schedule. Mr Modi’s popularity and BJP’s nationalism and development planks overshadowed almost every other issue.
With more than 11 crore members, including over 10 crore primary members, the BJP utilised its massive support base for launching numerous outreach campaigns, making sure that Mr Modi’s main support base — women, youth and the middle-class remained intact. Added to it was more than 22 crore benificiaries of Modi government’s various schemes, who the BJP leadership claimed supporterd the NDA government “wholeheartedly.” The core strategy of the saffron party was basically to convert Mr Modi’s popularity into a successful political strategy and to project him as the “true leader of this age.”
The election strategy of the BJP focussed on maing its presence felt at every booth across all the districts in all the states. It’s campaign ‘Mera Booth Sabse Majboot’ helped the party in getting members in almost all the states till the booth level, with the party even engaging its supporters and volunteers in the election related activities. The first step towards stregnthning the organisation was launching the BJP’s membership drive soon after the party come to power in 2014. The drive helped in enrolling more than 11 crore members.
The RSS on its part deputed its leaders to assist the BJP in every state, most importantly in Odisha and West Bengal, from the where party was hoping it could compensate for seats it loses in UP. The BJP’s decision to give tickets to new leaders also helped it projecting itself as the party for the youth.
Though its campaign for 2014 was ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas,’ the BJP was wary of the political influence of Dalits, OBCs and the minorities therefore, the entire Sangh Parivar was engaged in wooing them.
In a systematic manner, the Sangh Parivar, including the BJP presented Mr Modi as the “true leader” of dalits and the OBCs, with facts on initiatives taken by his government for them.
