Feedback, valuation key pillars of Amit Shah's poll strategy

Shah's 'night meetings' with BJP leaders to assess their contributions play a key role in ticket allotments

The former national president of the BJP and the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, is considered a skilled strategist of electoral politics. The reason for this is not only the party's back-to-back victories in elections, but also his expertise to assess the voters as well as the leaders and the workers.

This is the reason why not only opponents but also many of his own party leaders go sleepless, when Shah takes over the command of elections. The 'night meetings' of Amit Shah, who is constantly touring Uttar Pradesh, have, once again, created a similar atmosphere in the state.

Shah, after holding election rallies in various districts of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh throughout the day, chooses a particular area and stays there at night to hold meetings with party leaders. BJP leaders term it Shah's 'night meeting'.

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These meetings are the most important agenda of Shah's election campaign. In these meetings, he interacts directly with the in-charge of the Assembly constituency and takes feedback on several matters. Shah, during the meeting, discusses the electoral issues and equations of that particular region, including the caste equations necessary for electoral victory and other prominent polls related topics.

Based on the feedback received from the discussion, Shah then prepares a future course of action and gives necessary instructions to the workers and leaders.

The success of Shah's strategy can be gauged from the results of the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2017 Assembly elections.

This time around too, Shah has been holding meetings and taking ground feedback about the functioning and image of the MLAs, based on which ticket distribution is done. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, tickets of several sitting MPs were cut on the basis of such feedback.

The feedback also focuses on how active BJP MLAs have been and their extension of the benefits of government schemes to the public.

However, not being granted a ticket does not imply inaction, unpopularity or resentment among the voters about a particular candidate. A senior BJP leader said that sometimes, the equation of a particular region or changing electoral issues also affects ticket allotment.

Even in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party had won the election by cutting the tickets of many popular MPs. The party later adjusted many of its former MPs, who were not given tickets, in different roles and is now going to give some of them a chance in the upcoming Assembly elections.

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During the recent election tours in Uttar Pradesh, Shah has held such night meetings in Lucknow, Varanasi and Bareilly. Similar meetings are likely to be held in many other parts of the state in the coming days.

In the 2017 Legislative Assembly elections, of 403 seats in the state, the BJP alliance had won 325 seats, with the BJP accounting for 312 seats. In 2022, the party is targeting to form a government for consecutive terms.

As per the party's internal assessment, Yogi Adityanath is still the most popular face as Chief Minister, but there is widespread resentment against the sitting MLAs. In such a situation, the party is considering replacing more than one-third of its current MLAs to end the anti-incumbency atmosphere.

However, a final decision in this regard will be taken only at the party's Central Election Committee meeting in New Delhi. But the feedback received by Shah in the night meetings will play an important role in selecting the candidates.

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