New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the BJP leaders in Chhattisgarh to pull up their socks for the forthcoming election as an internal survey showed that though the party is far from winning a majority in the central state.
Shah had held a closed door meeting with senior leaders on Wednesday night to discuss the poll strategy for the BJP.
“The party is still lagging behind in the state. There is a lot that needs to done to win back tribal seats in Bastar region and Surguja belt, especially where the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) has influence,” Shah told the state leaders with whom he shared an internal survey report which identified several lacunae in the state BJP strategy and identified some weak areas.
Incidentally, the BJP has no presence in Naxal hinterland of Bastar as well as Surguja division.
A party functionary, who attended the meeting, said Shah explained that he will give more focus to Chhattisgarh where he will spend more time to tighten loose ends. “He will visit the state next week to monitor the progress of tasks assigned by him,” the BJP functionary said.
“Of the three states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, two are with the Congress and elections are due there in November. The BJP is finding Chhattisgarh the most difficult of the three states. The BJP is still not finding enough groundswell to counter Bhupesh Baghel’s welfare scheme and Hindutva plank in the state,” the BJP functionary told ThePrint.
This is despite the fact that the BJP ruled Chhattisgarh for 15 years from 2003 to 2018 under the leadership of former chief minister Raman Singh.
As per the internal survey findings, the BJP functionary said, “the party position is still shaky and it is still lagging behind in state and party strength needs to be strengthened on 29 tribal seats”.
In 2018, the BJP had won only 3 of the 29 reserved seats in Chhattisgarh. The party lost Dantewada, a reserved seat, to the Congress in a bypoll the next year.
Shah advised the state leadership to focus on those seats where the GGP and the Mayawati-led BSP has presence as it can damage the BJP prospect by dividing opposition votes, he added.
A thorough discussion was held during which Shah analysed each seat of every region to learn about the problems in BJP’s weak segments as well as to get an idea about Baghel’s popularity.
One of the BJP core group members told Shah that Naxals were killing party workers in tribal areas.
“It is only to create fear among our cadres. That needs to be checked. Whatever BJP state unit will ask, we will ensure. You can send me a list of important functionaries of Bastar region; we will provide security. But for confidence building, state leaders will have to visit and stay in those villages. If required, I can also spend a night in tribal areas,” the Union home minister told the BJP core group member.
‘Ladogae tabhi jeetogae’
Encouraging the morale of party leaders, Shah told them: “You will win elections only if you will fight them on streets. ‘Ladogae tabhi jeetogae’. No need for uniform strategy, fight on local issues and there is no need to panic about the CM’s image. State leaders can counter his image through localised strategy and attacking his corruption to tarnish the image of government.”
BJP state president Arun Sao told ThePrint that the meeting mainly focused on preparation for strategy to win the election. “Shah has given many suggestions on which we will work in the coming days. Our party is united to defeat the Congress government and our target is to win back tribal seats which we lost in 2018,” he added.
Nitin Navin, BJP co incharge of Chhattisgarh, told ThePrint that the home minister encouraged party leaders to fight the government on corruption and its unkept promises. “He has given certain inputs to win the election. We will work on them to ensure victory in the state.”
Given the dismal state of party affairs, the BJP high command deputed senior leader Om Mathur as state in-charge. Another worrying factor is despite several government officers under scrutiny of the Enforcement Directorate, the BJP’s efforts to harp on corruption narrative has not got large traction. Moreover, CM Bhupesh Baghel through schemes like Ram Gaman Path and Gaudhan has neutralised the Hindutva gambit of the BJP.
“Baghel’s OBC politics has dented our OBC votes. We are making efforts to counter his OBC push by tribal push, but we are not sure how many seats the party will win in the tribal belt. It is not the same case in urban regions. We will have to crack his welfare image to set the election narrative,” a BJP leader argued.
Baghel hails from Kurmi community and unlike the Congress traditional politics, he has focused on backward politics and established himself as the OBC face of the Congress party. While the OBCs comprise 50 percent of Chhattisgarh’s population, the tribals account for 32 percent of population.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Sarva Adivasi Samaj: IAS-IPS-IRS outfit looking to ‘save’ tribal politics this Chhattisgarh election