No more party chief but Amit Shah remains king of BJP poll strategy

Nearly six months after he made way for J P Nadda for Party Presidency, Home Minister Amit Shah remains the king as far as the party’s political strategy and electoral management go.

So when he sounded the poll bugle for Bihar, addressing a Bihar Jansamvad rally during flagging the ‘core’ achievements of Modi government in the last six years in the event "having nothing to do with elections', he left no one in doubt that Shah is not just like any other party President who can be passed off so immediately. His stamp on the party remains irrespective of whoever leads it.

Shah was literally the face of BJP campaign in Delhi Assembly polls of February, criss-crossing the state in the prestigious poll battle even as he had quit as party chief in the middle of the election campaign in January itself, passing the baton of party leadership to Nadda.

Shah’s era has been a golden one for BJP growth ever since he took over as party chief in July 2014 immediately after Narendra Modi-led BJP stormed to power with single party majority, a feat achieved by any party after 30 years in which too, Shah had played a key role delivering for BJP 71 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in which the party was out by power since 11 years by then.

Barring few reverses in last three years, Shah pulled out a string of victories for the party in state after state including bringing first ever government in North East in Assam but the glory of the moment was 2019 general elections, which broke the record of its previous mandate and won a whopping 303 seats for itself and 353 for NDA.

After having lost three states—Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan in 2018, Maharashtra in 2019 and Jharkhand and Delhi in 2020 February, BJP snatched Madhya Pradesh from Congress in May this year in a coup of sorts, inducting former Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. In July 2019 it had also managed to wrest Karnataka from JDS-Congress combine after having lost it in 2018.

Retaining Bihar in 2020 is important for BJP, which lost it in 2015 when Nitish Kumar out of NDA in 2013, formed a formidable Opposition alliance only to come back to NDA again in 2017. Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats and Shah went to conquer by dividing equal numbers of seats between BJP and JDU in 2019 Lok Sabha polls to keep the alliance intact, a strategy that paid off well. In 2021, West Bengal goes to polls, where the BJP after winning nine times more Lok Sabha seats (18 in comparison to just 02 in 2014), is hoping high.

There are indications that Shah, who changed the party into a giant election machinery, will have a significant role to play in both Bihar and West Bengal polls, which together have 82 seats. UP with 80 Lok Sabha seats goes to polls in 2022.

Shah’s stamp will also be seen in BJP organisational rejig in July when new general secretaries will take over after Nadda became President. Hence, Nadda’s new team will have Shah’s ‘blessing’.

Nadda, who is close to Shah as well as Modi, is unlikely to come in the way as Shah takes the political call in party for some more time with Modi remaining engrossed in govt affairs.

Despite the Home Ministry’s busy schedule, the party has fallen back on Shah’s astute political skills to reach out people in Bihar which goes to polls in next four months at a time NDA faces joint opposition attack on the issue of migrants, which constitute a major vote base in Bihar.