Boosting organisation, returning to winning ways
Mr Amit Shah's appointment as president of the Bharatiya Janata Party for his first full three-year term was a foregone conclusion, and so it surprised none that he was elected on Sunday without a contest. Besides being close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he is credited with scripting the decisive mandate for the BJP in the 2014 lok Sabha election across the country, and particularly in Uttar Pradesh of which he was in-charge; the BJP along with allies won an unprecedented 73 out of the 80 seats on offer there. In addition, he led the party to wins in various other States including Jammu & Kashmir where the BJP won enough number of seats to be part of a Government (led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed) for the first time. Given these achievements and the added fact that he had been the driving force behind the party's successes over the last more than a decade in Gujarat, where the BJP hasn't lost a single Assembly election since 2002, his candidature cannot be called into question. However, there has come into politics what can be called the ‘film industry syndrome' just as an actor is considered only as good as the performance of his last film, the leader is considered as successful as the result of his last electoral contest. This yardstick is being applied with gusto by the BJP's rivals who point to the party's decisive defeats in the Assembly elections of Delhi and Bihar under Mr Shah's leadership. While it is true that the results came as a setback to Mr Shah and the party, the unfairness lies in evaluating Mr Shah exclusively on these parameters. When his body of political work is taken together, the positives outweigh the negatives. If two electoral defeats at the State-level can be reason enough for a party chief to make way for a new face, then every party in the country will need to keep rotating its head in a continuous manner because elections keep happening all the time and keep throwing fresh results. Despite the Delhi and Bihar setbacks, the party cadre and its senior leaders had continued to repose faith in Mr Shah's ability to learn from mistakes, consolidate gains and energise the party to take on future challenges. Since the end of his current tenure will come after the 2019 lok Sabha election, Mr Shah also has to guide the BJP towards a second term at the Centre. It's a formidable task which could determine the party president's own political future.
For now though, Mr Shah has enough on his plate to concentrate on, without having to lose sleep over 2019. There are five State Assembly elections this year, and while the BJP has a good chance of gaining power in just one, Assam, its performance in the others will be watched with interest since the party hopes to enhance its footprint to respectable levels. The big one is, of course, Uttar Pradesh, which goes to poll in early 2017. This will be Mr Shah's first major test in his renewed term. If the party does well, it will in one stroke wipe out the stigma of defeat in both Bihar and Delhi and consolidate Mr Shah’s ‘Midas touch' reputation. Since he knows the State's politics inside out by now, a lot is expected of him. There's not much time left; he must get cracking. In addition, Mr Shah has to tone up the party organisation for other, non-electoral battles ahead. The composition of his new team will be keenly tracked and commented upon.