'Youth' and 'booth' were the twin pillars of BJP's sweeping victory in MP

Bhopal: BJP’s sweeping victory in Madhya Pradesh assembly elections had left amazed not only opposition parties but also the BJP leaders, because even they were not expecting a landslide win.

The major factors -- that proved to be the strengths of BJP in the state assembly elections -- were youth, booth, coordination and unity of the party.

On one hand, while the party strengthened the booth level and relied on the youth in the elections, on the other hand, the coordination between the state and national leadership was unmatched.

Before the state assembly elections, the contest between BJP and Congress was expected to be tough and even various surveys and reports from the grassroots level had made the BJP jittery. In these circumstances, it was not easy for BJP to turn the tables but the strategy of national leadership and activism of the party workers of the state were its biggest strengths.

BJP's state president Vishnu Dutt Sharma activated the grassroots workers through the booth expansion campaign and made every possible effort to provide benefits of the central and state government schemes to the beneficiaries.

Sharma also handed over the responsibility of contacting every household to the workers, and the party took decisions at its own level, keeping people associated with power away.

Besides, all the facilities were provided to the officials associated with the committees up to district, divisional and booth level as per the need.

Concerned about the poor feedback coming from the grassroots level, the national leadership and the state unit started to chalk out an effective strategy. First of all, Union Home Minister Amit Shah took command of the state's election strategy and deployed his two representatives, Union Ministers Bhupender Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw in the state. The presence of these two big leaders in the state and their association with the workers of the state unit led to a change in the situation.

Till about five months before the elections, it was being predicted that Congress might gain in the state poll and BJP may lose. This was the biggest concern of the party high command. In these circumstances, Shah made frequent visits to the state and during his stay at the divisional level, he cautioned the local leaders to change their working style.

A senior BJP leader says that during Shah’s divisional level visit, he also told the state leadership about the party’s situation in certain areas, only after that a campaign was launched to strengthen the weak links. Thereafter MPs and Union ministers were fielded in the assembly elections and plans for the visits of the Prime Minister and other leaders were drawn.

Political analysts believe that it was not easy for the BJP to retain the power in the state, but the continuous activism of the party’s state unit and the importance given to the workers resulted in the anti-incumbency being converted into pro-incumbency.