Right Word | BJP’s roadmap for 2024: Strong organisation, ideological clarity, effective delivery and ‘Modi Plus’

The proceedings at the two-day national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 16-17 January in New Delhi have broadly unfolded the road to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls for+ the ruling party. Let us take a look at some of the key elements of this strategy which are beyond the headlines and general political analysis of this meeting. Organisational aspect The BJP is working on three fronts in the context of its organisational structure. First, continuous expansion of the party base through new recruitment; second, training of the cadres so that they are in sync with the party’s ideology and functioning at the grassroots level; and third, uninterrupted engagement with the electorate at various levels. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his keynote address at the national executive, told the cadres and leaders to conduct ‘yatras’ and connect with the masses. This helps the party not only to take its government’s achievements to the common people but also helps to get crucial feedback from the ground that is passed on to the government through a well-structured mechanism of coordination between the party and the government. The government led by Narendra Modi is quite sensitive to this feedback and they are incorporated in the policy mechanism. This process is going to become more rigorous in the coming months as this would help the party to identify the issues that could be taken up in the national campaign. This is also where the BJP scores over the rest of the parties which generally have a one-way communication channel as the cadres get only instructions from the high command to take them forward. The feedback mechanism is missing in most Opposition parties. Initially, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had shown some promise by creating a robust mechanism of feedback from the grassroots level but now it remains only on paper and the party suffers from ‘High Command’ culture. The BJP would be able to create a much sharper campaign due to its ‘connect’ with grassroots while the Opposition would face a great handicap due to the ‘disconnect’ it has. It initially appeared that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra may be a step in the right direction for the Congress to create this ‘connect’. But the ultimate outcome was disappointing. The people gathered in his yatra are ‘usual suspect’ from Lutyens’ Delhi, leftist elites and armchair leaders and intellectuals who have nothing to do with grassroots politics. It is like preaching to the converted! It is also clear that when it comes to the recruitment, the party would continue to focus on professionals, youth, women and socially marginalised sections of the society. New training programmes are being devised with effective use of technology to maximise the reach of the party in minimum possible time. Ideological roadmap The BJP’s ideological roadmap is clear — an effective mix of development and Hindutva. The development model is based on a ‘Bharatiya’ paradigm of ‘Swadeshi’ and ‘Suraj’, i.e. self-reliance and good governance. The key aspect of this ideological roadmap is that the party would not only remain unapologetic about its stand on key national issues but would rather assert and showcase them as the achievements of the Modi government. Three key issues that are going to be highlighted in this regard are — Ram Temple at Ayodhya, revoking of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and banning Triple Talaq in favour of the Muslim women. One thing is very clear the BJP realises that it would be too early to expect Muslims to come out and vote for it in large numbers. Despite that the party and the Modi government would focus on reducing the friction points in the national narrative. That is why the party has started working with several socially and economically marginalised sections of the Muslim community. Meanwhile, the party and its leadership would refrain from being aggressive on ‘Hindutva’ but it would remain assertive on this. The challenge for the BJP would be that the dividing line between being assertive and being aggressive is very thin and to traverse on this would mean maintaining a fine balance. That is not an easy job to do but with a leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs, the BJP has done it in the past and the party is quite capable of doing it again. Meanwhile, the BJP would continue to work on the Uniform Civil Code issue through its state governments. Some of them might come up with a law in their respective states and that is likely to fuel a debate on the issue of Uniform Civil Code. The Opposition would be in a fix on this issue as there is a growing clamour in the society, cutting across all sections, to have a Uniform Civil Code in this country. Focus on ‘Beneficiaries’ One of the paradigm shifts brought into Indian politics by the Modi government is the creation of a new class of ‘beneficiaries’. The BJP and the Modi government are going to reap the benefits of reaching to this class which has been at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid in this country. Through technology, Direct Benefit Transfer Schemes are being implemented to plug the leakages and loopholes. More than 800 million individuals are getting free rations and other benefits since the onslaught of Covid-19. The party and the government are going to work in sync with the party cadres tapping the beneficiaries of these schemes in their respective areas at the local level. While the Opposition may claim that many of the schemes were started by their governments in the past, the fact of the matter is that due to huge corruption, the benefits of the schemes hardly reached those who needed them the most. The Modi government has been able to resolve this long-pending issue with the effective use of technology. To a large extent, the massive victory of the BJP in the 2019 polls was a result of these ‘beneficiaries’ emerging as a major vote bank for the BJP. When Covid-19 came two years ago, the Modi government turned this adversity into an opportunity as it cast the net of its welfare schemes so wide that they are now covering almost every marginalised citizen of this country in one way or the other. The Opposition would find it difficult to counter the BJP’s campaign on this front as Congress and its allies had more than six decades to deliver but they failed. The Modi government has delivered on the ground for the marginalised sections through its welfare schemes. So the BJP is going to make it a contest between ‘performance of welfare schemes under the Modi government for the poor versus corruption and leakages in non-BJP regimes at both the Central and state level.’ Modi Plus It is well-known that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to be the X factor for the BJP giving it a distinct edge over the Opposition. However, for 2024, the Opposition would have to face ‘Modi Plus’. Prime Minister Modi has carefully nurtured a galaxy of leaders over the last few years creating ‘Modi Plus’. They are young, articulate and enjoy a clean image. These leaders are going to campaign across the nation assisting Modi who would be leading from the front. These leaders are — Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Devendra Fadnavis. They are hugely popular across the country, enjoy credibility amongst the masses and are fiery speakers. This would make the task of the Opposition even more difficult. In a nutshell, led by Modi, the BJP’s juggernaut for 2024 has started rolling out. Though there are going to be a series of Assembly polls in 2023, that wouldn’t help much to gauge the mood of the nation as the voters tend to vote for the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls differently. The BJP has a distinct advantage over the Opposition which is divided, bereft of any ideology and has poor organisational support. The writer, an author and columnist, has written several books. He tweets @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .