NEW DELHI: Confident of wresting power after an exile of 21 years, the BJP leadership asserted that the poll results would astound its political rivals.
A top leader claimed that the BJP successfully managed to sway a majority of ‘indecisive’ voters with the help of ‘aggressive’ turnaround campaign. “We are going to spring a surprise. Party leaders effectively connected with the electorate, especially with fence sitters, which helped us to add two per cent vote share every day. The scenario drastically changed in two-three weeks,” said a top BJP functionary, who was part of the team devising the campaign strategy.
According to an internal survey, 30% voters were undecided till last week of January for which the BJP launched a dedicated drive to tap them. The BJP pitched in senior leaders, including Union ministers, CMs, for the poll campaign. Some of them were engaged for more than two weeks. Besides door-to-door outreach programme, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda participated in over 100 public meetings.
Exuding confidence of winning 45 of the total 70 seats, BJP functionaries claimed that small meetings by Shah and Nadda worked ‘magically’. “Till two weeks ago, when campaigning was picking up pace, we felt a lack of connectivity with the electorate. The people used to say that there was no alternative of the AAP, but things changed in our favour. We didn’t have appropriate campaign content. Once the narrative altered and assumed the colour of nationalism, we started leading” he said.
A member of the party core group said with the change in tone and tenor of the campaign, the BJP switched on to attack mode leading to a rise in its vote share. “We exposed the AAP completely. We went to slum clusters and convinced voters that they were already getting free water and power. If the BJP comes to power, they will get two-room flats. In the last one week, AAP were not talking about education and health, which were their main poll planks. They were responding to our campaign.”
Last-minute boost from two biggies
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda gave the much-needed push to the BJP campaign. Together, they attended over 100 public meetings for the saffron party.