CHANDIGARH: Banking on Brand Narendra Modi, the BJP drove down to its historic win in Jatland. As the party cashed in on the anti-Congress and anti-Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) sentiments, the saffron party’s victory could also be attributed to micro-management at the booth level and door-to-door campaign, besides the support from the Deras.
The BJP did not project a Chief Ministerial candidate, instead it repeatedly asserted its confidence that the “Modi wave” would work as it did in the Lok Sabha elections a few months ago and it did.
Modi held some 11 rallies in the state, so did party president Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, asking the voters to put an end to the rule of political dynasties in the state and free it from corruption and “gunda raj”.
The party also made sure that micro management was done at its best so that the message was conveyed down to the grassroots. A senior party leader said, “As the national leaders of the party attacked the political opponents on these issues, the party cadre spread the message to the masses. As the booth level committee was constituted, each committee had a minimum of 10 members, and the work assigned to them was to get each and every voter out of the house and to the polling booth, besides spreading the messages of the party.
“To check that these committees worked properly, another team which consisted of party cadre from other states. Different teams were also formed, some of which organised rallies, while others dealt with social media. Then there was the ‘war room’ in Rohtak, to coordinate all this and similar teams in NCR, Panchkula and other places,” said a party insider.
The saffron party released its manifesto at the state level, but at the constituency level it also listed its priorities after taking local issues into consideration.
A majority of Sikh voters in the state, about 12 lakhs, voted for the BJP amid fears that the Haryana Sikh Gurdawara Parbhandak Committee Act would be scrapped if the INLD-SAD alliance came to power.