New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not just drawing up a report card of its own “successes” as the Lok Sabha elections draw near, it is also preparing one listing the “failures” of opposition parties where they are in office.
According to sources in the BJP, the party has decided to make a targeted approach against prominent opposition leaders heading state governments.
These include two states headed for assembly polls along with the parliamentary polls: Odisha, led by Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD), and Andhra Pradesh, governed by former BJP ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of Chandrababu Naidu.
Of the two other states that go to the polls with the Lok Sabha election, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, the former has a BJP-led government.
In Sikkim, the BJP has joined hands with the opposition party Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) against the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), which has been in office for 25 years.
However, the report cards are only likely to focus on bigger states being governed by satraps: West Bengal, led by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, Punjab, under the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government, Kerala, under a Left Democratic Front (LDF) administration headed by Pinarayi Vijayan, Delhi, under Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and Telangana, where K. Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is in office.
“Thinktanks associated with the party have been tasked with preparing these reports, which would aim to compare the promises made by these parties in their respective manifestos, and how they delivered on them,” a senior BJP leader told ThePrint.
Almost all the leaders likely to be targeted are involved with the opposition front taking shape to challenge the BJP at the Centre.
The aforementioned source said that though the election was being contested on the issue of nationalism, the BJP did not want to leave any room for opposition attacks on the issue of performance.
“What is a better way to show them how they have performed on their promises?” added the source, who is associated with the process.
Also read: BJP will amplify national security rhetoric, welfare delivery to counter Congress manifesto
‘To be used throughout the campaign’
According to sources in the party, the state-wise report cards of opposition governments will be unveiled during the campaign for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls, which kick off next Thursday.
“The report cards of opposition-ruled states are in the final stages and will soon be unveiled in these states,” a senior party leader told ThePrint. “Our target is to have them distributed ahead of the first phase of voting. However, these are going to be used by the party in all seven phases,” the leader added.
As reported by ThePrint earlier this week, the BJP has already decided to release a report card highlighting the NDA government’s achievements over the past five years.
The thrust of the ‘report card’ is that the Modi government has been proactive in taking decisions, such as “granting 1,100 cabinet approvals” for projects, as opposed to the “policy paralysis” under the previous Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Also read: Modi govt created 15 million jobs a year, says BJP ‘report card’
KCR is still smelling of roses from his recent victory. MB is half way through her second term, secured with an overwhelming majority. AK’s 67 out of 70 will not be surpassed in our lifetimes. These are serious, grounded politicians. The governance record in Delhi would have been far superior if the LG had given the CM his space. Holding up their Report Cards – along with one’s own – for public scrutiny is the raw material of a good election campaign. Reports from the field indicate that Pulwama / Balakot is far from the defining issue.
A survey suggests Unemployment is the issue uppermost in people’s minds, 21%, while National Security, including the air strikes, comes at the bottom, 2%. If that is true, the incumbent’s campaign may have to be reworked. For that matter, one has never understood why Election Manifestos are released so late. The Congress has been unable to come up with an effective slogan; recall Mars Gandhi’s Elect a government that works in 1980, capturing perfectly the bumbling, ineptitude, squabbles of the Janata government she consigned to history.