NEW DELHI: Unfazed by Delhi rout, the BJP appears to be sticking with its thrust on national issues in state polls and doesn’t see the need for any major re-think on electoral strategy. However, the party will customise its strategy to weave in local factors to build up the narrative in while campaigning in poll-bound states.
The BJP had pushed national issues with full force in the recent Delhi Assembly elections, with party’s motormouths raking up the issue of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), especially at Shaheen Bagh, in a big way.
“If not for the national issues, the BJP’s vote share would have remained about 30 per cent. It’s quite erroneous for political pundits to say that the people rejected the BJP’s national agenda. The BJP was able to shore up the support base to touch the 40 per cent vote share only an account of the forceful articulation of the national issues,” said a senior party leader.
The BJP next faces the challenge to defend Bihar in alliance with Nitish Kumar-led JD (U) and others later this year. The Bihar polls are crucial for the saffron party which has been on losing spree, with five states going out of the party’s kitty in past 18 months.
“The BJP being a national party will push for the national agenda in elections, which gains strength due to the battery of communicators led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At the same time, the party will scale up the local issues in cases where the incumbent government is led by a political rival, as in the case of West Bengal next year. But the party will have to stress on the achievements of its own government in elections, as in the case of Bihar. So, there is no one constant formula for elections,” said another BJP functionary.
“In Assam elections next year, the narrative will altogether be different from Delhi and Bihar and so will be the case in West Bengal,” the leader said.
BIHAR HAS MODI’S BLESSINGS: NADDA
Exhorting party workers in Bihar to spread the message that “BJP is synonymous with development”, party president J P Nadda asked them to work towards ensuring the NDA’s return to power in the Assembly polls due later this year. Nadda inaugurated, through video conferencing, newly-built BJP offices across 11 districts in Bihar. He called upon party workers to explain to the people that “Bihar has the blessings of Narendra Modi, who has provided assistance worth billions to the state.”