NEW DELHI: 2014 was best year for the BJP in its 34 years old history. Riding a massive wave, the party under Narendra Modi won unprecedented 282 seats in the Lok Sabha. The elections saw massive use of technology, social media to win over the young voters. The aspirational class voted in huge numbers to rout out the UPA government whose last five years were marred by scams and scandals.
With his high octane campaign across the country, Modi was able to build an image of a development icon who could deliver the country from its pessimistic mood.
The Lok Sabha mandate gave the party confidence to enter into states on its own, as the subsequent elections results in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, and even Jammu and Kashmir made it amply clear that saffron was spreading its reach in the country. Barring J&K, where the process of forming government was still underway, the other three states saw BJP CM for the first time.
Also Read: Yearender 2014 Special
If Narendra Modi changed the fortunes of his party, it was his deputy Amit Shah whose elevation to as the party chief saw the end of Vajpayee-Advani era.
The 2014 saw the beginning of the Modi-Shah era in the party.
While, Modi runs the government at the centre with an iron grip over the administration, Shah has the last word in the party. As BJP’s youngest president, Shah picked up talent from its ideological parent RSS to swell the ranks of party, and even office bearers.
Sangh was no longer an organisation that existed at the margins of the Indian polity, as it did during the UPA regime. With its many frontal organisations, Sangh started expanded its reach, and even gathering faithful to its folds, as BJP’s footprint started growing across the country. Right Wing was no longer diffident.
Shah also got a shot in the arm, as CBI Court discharged him from Soharbuddin fake encounter case on December 30.
In 2015, Shah aims to expand party’s reach in uncharted territories of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu. While, the elections in Delhi and Bihar scheduled for 2015 would again test its electoral skills.