The results of the recent elections of five state assemblies show that in a diverse and vibrant democracy like India, politicians and election managers need to be continuously educated, lest they misread the results in one round and flounder in the next.
Buoyed by its success in Karnataka, where it offered five guarantees, the Congress thought it had the magic formula to destroy its political opponent—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—and offered six guarantees in Telengana, seven in Rajasthan and an unspecified number of guarantees in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
But the formulae fell flat in the three Hindi-speaking states. Ultimately, what triumphed was Narendra Modi’s guarantee and Amit Shah’s warranty!
It is difficult to discern the logic of the doles dished out by the Congress in each state. Why did the guarantees and the list of goodies vary from state to state? While the BJP went back to the drawing board after the Karnataka debacle, the Congress misinterpreted the verdict.
In these elections, the BJP remained committed to deploying its trump card—Narendra Modi—and offering his national guarantees, even though it did not wholly shun the temptation to offer local inducements. After the shock treatment it got at the hands of the voters of Karnataka, it realised local aspirations must be met without losing sight of the nation’s economic well-being and the party’s national goals.
This was the big take-away for the BJP from the defeat in Karnataka. Thus, the party did not go berserk by offering freebies like electricity and bus rides to the people, like the Congress in Karnataka and the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi and Punjab. Its approach was a combination of across-the-board anti-poverty programmes, local assurances and national aspirations. This included free rations for 800 million people; Ayushman Bharat, a health insurance scheme; the Ujjwala Yojana distribution of subsidised LPG cylinders to poor families; the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Housing);annual financial benefit to farmers of Rs 6000 under the Kisan Samman Nidhi and a maternity benefit scheme to provide Rs 5000 to every pregnant woman above 19 years for the first birth. But, more importantly, they ensured implementation of these schemes and transfer of benefits directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. In other words, these are all poverty alleviation and social welfare schemes spread across the country which any welfare state is obliged to offer and are not in the category of freebies. They have been in operation for several years and implemented with far greater efficiency than in the past because of Modi’s constant monitoring of targets achieved.
Side by side, there was the party’s well-oiled machinery working towards specific, targeted electoral objectives, thanks to Amit Shah’s plan of action.
Amit Shah’s micro management is something that is very special to the BJP and is talked about in various party circles. The party strives to establish contact with electors in every booth way ahead of elections. These booth level workers are called Panna Pramukhs (page leaders) in charge of a single page in the electoral roll, which has the names of 30 electors.
These Panna Pramukhs then go on to contact electors, check whether they have received the benefits promised by Modi and connect with all those who are beneficiaries of government schemes. In a sense, this is an equivalent of servicing centres of companies selling consumer goods. The difference is that if you buy a product and it malfunctions, you complain to the service centre whereas here, the BJP workers reach out to the electors sou motu. This level of booth management is executed by the BJP with varying degrees of success in the country. The greater the efficiency of Operation Panna Pramukh in a state, the more invincible the party will become in elections.
For example, in Madhya Pradesh, the booth-level worker was tasked to identify beneficiaries of the Ladli Behena Scheme launched last March by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, under which they offered Rs 1250 to the women hailing from poor families. This was done with extraordinary planning and execution, so much so that the party was able to connect with most of the 12 million women who were receiving the government grant every month and they ensured that they reached the polling stations on voting day. The precision with which this was executed could be seen in the voter turn-out and support for the party in the state. Eventually the party secured 49 percent of the vote as against the Congress Party’s 41 percent. In a large number of constituencies, the BJP’s share of women’s vote was ten percent more than that of the Congress.
In Chhattisgarh, a complacent Congress was in for a rude shock. The BJP went about its task silently and diligently. The party’s manifesto in this state declared that ‘Modi ki Guarantee’ was on the table which it said was far more credible and reliable. So, here again, the Modi magic worked!
This discipline and organisational skills of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh was such that the Congress Party’s Grihalakshmi Scheme offering Rs 1500 a month to every woman head in a household failed to attract voters. Modi’s over-arching guarantee of good governance and social welfare schemes seemed far more solid and financially prudent than the freebies offered by the Congress. But, when combined with Amit Shah’s warranty which assures the people that the party cadres will always be with them, the BJP will be on a strong wicket. The supreme confidence of the Modi-Shah duo in their national agenda of governance is best exemplified by the choice of chief ministers in the three states won by the party. This is a signal to the people of the country that when it comes to governance, there cannot be a better brand and a better guarantee or warranty!
(Views are personal)
A SURYA PRAKASH
Vice-Chairman, Executive Council, Prime Ministers Museum and Library, New Delhi
(suryamedia@gmail.com)