Addressing BJP’s booth-level Shakti Kendras, Shah says giving importance to grassroot cadre is key to BJP beating anti-incumbency in Gujarat polls.
As the election juggernaut returns to his home state, BJP president Amit Shah has gone back to his tried and tested poll strategy – knocking on the door of every household to garner votes.
Beginning 7 November, thousands of the party’s polling booth in-charge workers will go door to door, armed with a report card of Gujarat’s BJP government and a comparison of the aid the Narendra Modi-led Centre has provided to the state with the previous Congress-led UPA regime. The outreach programme, titled ‘Sampark Abhiyaan’, will run until 12 November.
Shah addressed a ‘Shakti Kendra’ meeting with the BJP’s polling station in-charge workers Saturday. He reiterated that listening and giving due importance to the grassroot cadre may be the key to the BJP beating anti-incumbency and retaining power in the state that it has ruled for nearly two decades. The party’s senior leadership is now burning the midnight oil to arm its cadre with data on each polling booth.
Shah’s micro-management model
The BJP under Shah has become known for its micro-level management of election campaigns. At the first rung of the ladder are ‘page pramukhs’, each of whom is given one page from the voters’ list and asked to follow up with each member of the electorate.
Then come ‘Shakti Kendras’, each of which is a collection of three to four polling booths. There are around 47,000-50,000 Shakti Kendras in Gujarat.
“They’re called Shakti Kendras because the party gets its urja (energy) from these grassroot workers. They assess the party’s strengths and weaknesses on the ground, and based on that, the party can then alter its strategy,” said a party member who has been made a ‘vistarak’ in Gujarat.
The job of a vistarak is to take stock of the party’s position, to engage with people, and post a ‘Main hun BJP’ (I am BJP) sticker on each household if they’re sure the residents will vote for the party. The vistaraks’ work is also audited – they are asked to download an app and upload details of their visits and feedback, which is compiled by the party. In this poll process, two rounds of vistarak visits to the public have already been completed, and a third is to be launched soon.
The task at hand
According to Gujarat BJP leaders, the Shakti Kendras have been divided into three categories (A, B, C) and various subcategories (A+, A-, B+ etc).
A senior leader told ThePrint: “The polling stations where we know the BJP will get more than 80 per cent of votes are classed A+, and where we’ll get more than 60 per cent are in the A category. Every worker has been assigned the task of adding at least 50 more votes at each of these booths.”
“The B category is where there is huge scope for improvement – where we’re expected to get 30-40 per cent of the vote. The C category is anything between 20-30 per cent, or even less. The cadres are generally asked to not pay attention to C category stations, and focus their energies on the B category.”
It is these booth-level workers who are entrusted with controlling the damage done by the Congress’s social media campaign #VikasGandoThayoChe (development has gone crazy). To counter the damage, the BJP has also bought 2-3 minute radio and TV slots, where Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announces that vikas has not gone crazy, and then delves into his government’s achievements.
“We were caught on the wrong foot. Whatever we did on social media was not enough,” said a senior BJP leader from Gujarat. “But vistaraks and Shakti Kendra palaks are now micro-managing the door-to-door campaign. They will ensure that every person goes out and votes.”
Accepting that there are challenges due to the Goods and Services Tax and its impact on businesses, sources in the party said it is trying to pacify the trader community.
Apart from counting achievements of the BJP regime in Gujarat and the Centre’s commitment to the state, Shah has asked the cadres to use facts to support their claims.
“We have to ensure people know that when Rahul Gandhi comes to Gujarat, he comes armed with the wrong facts, and thus, misleads people. This will be highlighted in cadre communication with the people,” said a source.
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