The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership does not want its cadres to lose sight of new challenges that await as it moves closer to Assembly elections in four States. >The new BJP president, Amit Shah, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have handed out a blueprint for cadres to follow, beginning with an enrolment drive.
There are also ample indications that the party may do away with allies to secure a majority in the 288-seat Maharashtra Assembly and 90-seat Haryana Assembly, elections for which are scheduled later this year. Elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand are due early next year.
Targets have been set for the annual enrolment exercise which begins on November 1; cadres have been instructed to woo the “youth” and scout for prospective members in colleges and institutions of higher learning. As an incentive, the signing up fee has been waived for those registering online.
“Even at the National Council Meeting on Saturday, the party president stressed that we should aim to eradicate the Congress’ vichaar (thought) from the country,” said a party functionary.
The diktat to cultivate a “hunger for victory”, that came from Mr. Shah, is to ensure that the party does not lose the momentum that helped it win the seemingly impossible 282 seats in the Lok Sabha polls. The recent three-seat loss in the Uttarakhand Assembly bypolls set alarm bells ringing, and Mr. Shah wants cadres to view very election as a “chance to reach out to people with our ideology”.
While there is no clear verdict on partnerships, the conspicuous omission of naming allies, including the Shiv Sena at the National Council and references to the present-day State governments in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana are indications that the party is not counting on alliances.
“The party will announce whether it will go with any ally at an appropriate date. As of now the cadres have been asked to step up their activities, take the party’s message to the masses, explain what the government has done in the past 65 days and prepare for polls,” the functionary said. Mr. Modi’s instruction to have “100-200 primary members at every booth” has underlined the message to regroup.
In Maharashtra, the party is in alliance with Shiv Sena, but on Saturday, Mr. Shah announced that the party will form a “strong government” in the State. In Jharkhand too, the party is eyeing a majority without allies.
If reference to Haryana's “land scams” was a cue to party workers to strategise against the Congress by targeting the alleged deals involving Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, cadres in J&K too have been given a signal to flag the incumbent National Conference for crossing “all limits of corruption”.
