Amit Shah quells anti-Bedi murmurs in Delhi BJP; banks on Modi-Obama boost

The first big ad featuring Kiran Bedi in the Delhi assembly polls appeared today (24 January). It comes after the BJP central leadership, most particularly Amit Shah, finished its samjhane bujhane ka kaam (the task of explaining and warning dissidents who were unhappy with Bedi’s surprise induction as the party’s chief ministerial candidate last week).[caption id=“attachment_2061445” align=“aligncenter” width=“380”]  BJP chief Amit Shah. PTI[/caption] There is a lot of loose talk going around about how Shah and other central leaders tamed the Delhi BJP’s state unit leaders. In most cases it amounted to simple plain-speaking where the privileged ones got a polite but firm reprimand. “That process got over two days ago. Now is the time for two weeks of full-throttle, unified campaign,” a senior party leader said. So far all radio and print ads had been focused only on Narendra Modi. In the new ads that have been unleashed from today, Bedi’s picture and credentials have been highlighted in equal measures: 40 saal ke tajurbe se Dilli khilegi, Ab Dilli Modi sang chalegi. In all her public contact programmes, Bedi has been at pains to tell voters that Delhi should elect a government that is in sync with Modi’s vision. A BJP strategist told Firstpost that the party’s assessment is that Bedi is instrumental in consolidating the support base that has been there for Modi and BJP. Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was using the vacuum in the state BJP leadership to target the party and cash in on it. AAP has now got an effective counter to its own game. Claims BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao: “Our campaign punch, Modi at Centre and Bedi in state’, has derailed AAP.” Rao referred to AAP patron Shanti Bhushan’s statement that categorically endorsed Kiran Bedi’s candidature as being as good as Kejriwal’s to substantiate his point. However, just when campaigning should have been hitting high gear, the visit of President Barack Obama to Delhi has come as a speedbreaker as media focus shifts to this all-important presidential visit. The BJP, however, is rather upbeat about it because they believe that Obama’s visit will give Modi and the BJP additional political mileage. A very high-profile Obama visit will give Modi an opportunity to figure prominently in public discussions. Beginning Sunday morning, when Obama arrives in New Delhi, and till he departs on Tuesday, all eyes and ears will be focused on him and all debates, structured or otherwise, in TV studios will be centred on the diplomatic coup pulled off by Modi in getting Obama to be chief guest at the R-Day parade. So even as Modi is off campaigning in Delhi, he will very much occupy mindspace. After Tuesday, the parties will have roughly 10 days’ time to go full tilt for the second and final phase of campaigning. BJP president Amit Shah is holding a series of meetings with booth level workers to pep up morale at the bottom of the organisational structure. Today, for instance, he is meeting booth conveners in Rohini in north Delhi. Below the booth level, he has created people in charge of specific pages of the electoral rolls. Each page in-charge has one page or more of of the voters’ list to handle. These page-in-charge workers are expected to visit each voter’s home ahead of polling. The booth committees upwards are expected to meet everyday and review developments. After Obama departs and all the spade work by the party is completed, Modi is expected to address four to five rallies in different parts of the city. His persona will then “loom large on Delhi’s election scene”, as a BJP leader put it. Delhi’s elections are poised at an interesting juncture in terms of the vote shares of the two principal contenders. Both BJP and AAP appear to be increasing their vote shares from levels in the December 2013 elections. The internal surveys of both parties suggest that they are gaining at the cost of the Congress. If AAP has lost its middle class support to the BJP, it is gaining from the traditional Congress support base among the minorities and jhuggi (slum) clusters. The focus of both BJP and AAP is now on consolidating their core support bases and attempting to poach a little from the other. AAP, for instance, is trying hard to make a mark in Outer Delhi, where it drew a blank in the last elections. The BJP is trying to get into slum clusters and unauthorised colonies. Some of the BJP’s radio ads are devoted to Modi’s promises of pucca houses for all by 2022. AAP’s freebie package promises more goodies of daily use. Thanks to Obama’s overwhelming presence in the capital, the BJP, AAP and Congress will be using the extended weekend to discover more imaginative ideas for the final push.