BJP national executive meet will look to solve caste conundrum, decide poll strategy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the day-long meeting of the BJP Chief Ministers' Council in New Delhi | Manvender Vashist/PTI

The two-day meet of BJP’s 95-member national executive begins Saturday at New Delhi’s B.R. Ambedkar International Centre.

New Delhi: As it braces itself to face the challenging year-end assembly polls as well as next year’s Lok Sabha elections, the two-day national executive meet of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) beginning Saturday will look at ways of solving its caste conundrum.

The party wants to continue to reach out to Dalits and backward castes while keeping its upper caste voters happy.

The meet will also assess BJP’s poll-preparedness, while trying to stitch its strategy to expand into newer territories.

Caste calculations

ThePrint reported earlier this week how the BJP is worried about an angry upper caste electorate. At a meeting of all BJP chief ministers and deputy chief ministers last week, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah expressed deep concern about “upper caste unhappiness with the party,” asking all CMs to address this immediately.

The upper castes — BJP’s traditional vote-bank — have been upset with the party for its overtures to Dalits and other backward castes, an attempt to widen its electoral caste umbrella.

Tellingly, the two-day meet of the 95-member national executive is being organised at the B.R. Ambedkar International Centre in the capital. The venue was inaugurated by Modi in December last year as part of the party’s attempts to celebrate Ambedkar’s legacy.

Balancing its efforts to woo the Dalit community with the need to keep its core vote-bank of upper castes intact will be a focus area for the party, a roadmap for which is expected to be fleshed out during the national executive meet.

The BJP estimates that upper castes make up for around 25-30 per cent of the population and are, therefore, critical. As per the 2011 census, Dalits comprise 16.6 per cent of the country’s population, and the BJP would not want to give up on this share of the electoral pie.

Among its several steps to reach out to backward communities have been two bills — Constitution Amendment Bill to restore the original provisions of the SC/ST Act and giving constitutional backing to the National Commission for Backward Classes — approved by the Parliament in the last session.

ThePrint earlier reported how both these moves are likely to be hailed in the political resolution to be passed during the two-day meet.

Poll-preparedness

The party will face Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan electorates, as well as the 2019 polls as an incumbent. Mizoram, also scheduled to vote end of the year, is also crucial given that it is the only remaining of the seven northeastern states where the BJP isn’t in power.

For the organised election machinery the BJP has become under the Modi-Shah combine, the meet of its top leaders will be an ideal platform to thrash out electoral issues and fine-tune its strategy. Battling incumbency can be tough, but Shah has maintained that it can actually be helpful if the party in power delivers, and thus, focus will be on taking stock of what has been achieved so far and laying down new deliverables.

The BJP would also want to discuss how to take the message of its welfare, pro-poor thrust and the various schemes to that effect that it has brought in to its voters, while still ensuring that the middle class does not feel alienated and gravitate towards its rivals.

Detailed discussion on each of the states going to polls is expected, particularly since the party faced serious reverses in bypolls earlier this year in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Fresh pastures

The national executive meet also comes in the backdrop of a group of opposition parties attempting to forge a grand alliance to take on Modi’s BJP.

The party, therefore, needs to chalk out its alliance strategy as well, which will include both keeping its existing flock together, while trying to form new ties. In the southern states in particular, the BJP would want to expand its footprint by entering into new alliances. In Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the party is weighing its options and trying to find suitors.

Modi and Shah are well aware that several states where it peaked in 2014 to zoom past the magic figure may not yield the same results again. Looking for newer pastures, then, is imperative for the BJP and states such as West Bengal (42 Lok Sabha seats) and Odisha (21 seats), besides southern and north-eastern states, are key targets.

Expanding its base in these states while trying to ensure its heartland numbers — especially in Uttar Pradesh — do not dip drastically is also expected to be a key area of discussion during the meet.