Sections of party leaders see need to identify local issues and a local face to fight the forthcoming Assembly election
BJP boss Amit Shah announced here a week back that Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) will lead the Assembly election campaign in Jharkhand making it clear that the party will decide on who becomes the Chief Minister only after the polls are over.
Shah, during a closed-door meeting is also said to have told core committee members that the Chief Minister will be selected by the BJP parliamentary board and not the MlAs, implying thereby that they should not hanker for getting tickets for their loyalists.
The BJP boss’ strategy might be aimed at keeping the factional war under the carpet, but the setback for the BJP in the by-elections in eight States, particularly in UP, results of which were announced on Tuesday, sent the party leaders to rethink whether the strategy will pass the test during the Assembly elections in Jharkhand where it hopes to repeat the lok Sabha performance in the Assembly polls.
Today’s results will first test the BJP strategy for Assembly elections in two important States next month - Maharashtra and Haryana. The BJP had in the lok Sabha elections handsomely won, getting 12 out of 14 seats in Jharkhand.
“This has now become certain that we need local issues and a local face to fight the Assembly elections. Modi magic will work as a back-up support,” maintained a BJP leader requesting anonymity.
Shah, during an informal chat with the journalists, had also said here that the party’s decision of not projecting a local face was part of a strategy. He had also rejected a contention that projecting a local face will add to the vote number. “Sometimes we project a leader and sometimes not…it depends on the political scenario,” he had explained.
Shah, referring to the Bihar bypoll results, had maintained that the bypolls were not fought to form a government and added “the result will be different when we fight to form a Government.” But a BJP leader said that the party has to face strong regional leaders like Shibu Soren, and Babulal Marandi in Jharkhand. “So, we also need a regional and empowered leader to take on them,” he pointed out, adding, the time for collective leadership, ostensibly a device to keep all the contenders in good humour ahead of elections, is over.
“We have got the results of empowering Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhra Raje and Raman Singh as regional satrap,” he said, adding that the warring leaders will fall in line once the party projects a strong leader to fight an election.
But then, the BJP’s ambivalent stand on the tribal issue in Jharkhand may also prove to be counter-productive for the party, which stands a fair chance to achieve ‘Mission 42 plus’.
“We need to have a clear stand on it. If the tribals get a message that the BJP will dump them once they get a majority, they may switch over to the grand alliance which is being put in place by the BJP rivals. Also, the Scheduled Castes, who have voted for the BJP in the lok Sabha elections may feel deprived if our leaders rake up such issues,” said a BJP leader.
Notably, the RSS created a social capital by consolidating its base in the tribal areas to counter Christian missionaries. Any move to give a raw deal to the tribals might ultimately weaken the RSS foothold in Jharkhand, said a RSS sympathiser. Again, among non-tribals also, there are two groups - one which has migrated from Bihar and other States and those who are natives called moolvasis. The natives share several common concerns with the tribals and do not gel with the Biharis.
Incidentally, the BJP had not projected a face in the 2005 and 2009 Assembly elections and the fractured result was for everyone to see. Also, the recent electoral trend shows that the people vote in the Assembly elections for the leader who will guide them and becomes Chief Minister. BJP state president Ravindra Rai said that the bypoll result shows that “The people want our government to deliver fast. We will have to analyse the result in view of the Assembly elections in Jharkhand.”