Amit Shah leads BJP’s bandwagon against AAP, even after passing the baton of BJP chief to J P Nadda

Union Minister Amit Shah has only this week passed the baton of BJP chief to J P Nadda, yet he is leading the charge against the incumbent Aam Admi Party in Delhi.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah hugs BJP's national president JP Nadda. (Photo | EPS/Shekhar Yadav)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah hugs BJP's national president JP Nadda. (Photo | EPS/Shekhar Yadav)

NEW DELHI: Union Minister Amit Shah has only this week passed the baton of BJP chief to J P Nadda, yet he is leading the charge against the incumbent Aam Admi Party in Delhi. Barring the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shah’s micro-management in Delhi has a parallel with the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The saffron outfit is drawing confidence from his track record of wresting power from Opposition parties.

Taking dinner at a party workers’ house to late-night strategy meetings at the ward level, Shah’s high stake in Delhi polls is much visible, bringing Union ministers and campaigners from other states in hordes. With Shah leading the charge, the BJP workers’ base and the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) cadre are knocking at the doors of the people, engaging them in conversations, armed with statistics prepared by the BJP think tank Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC) under the watch of the vice president of the outfit Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.

With the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the sharp opposition to the newly enacted law provide the BJP leaders context to engage the audience, Shah’s management of the party’s electioneering is seen within the outfit as blanking out scope for faction-fighting in the ranks, which has been attributed for losses in 2008, 2013 and 2015 Assembly elections.

“The 2017 UP Assembly elections too was a daunting task for the Shah led BJP in the face of the Samajwadi Party and Congress alliance. The BJP has in last week been able to become a challenger to the incumbent AAP on the back of sharp mobilisation of the party workers, who are exploiting the discomforts in the ranks of AAP on the debate around CAA,” said a senior BJP functionary.

Shah has unleashed hundreds of BJP leaders, Union Ministers, who have been slotted at the level of polling booths to swing away the fence sitters and disenchanted voters of AAP in 2015. Besides, close door meetings with influential people at the polling booth levels are being held beyond the scheduled campaign hours, which are being taken by senior leaders and even Shah attending a few of them.

Shah’s task, sources said, is clear to cap the decline of the BJP’s vote share in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections of 56 per cent to the minimum, with the assessment that if the saffron outfit polls anything around 40 per cent, power in Delhi will be within the reach.

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