BJP up for solo fight in Maharashtra polls, but in talks with Shiv Sena
Maharashtra finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar says that an alliance with the Shiv Sena was not a need for the BJP
{{^adFree}}
Business News/ Politics / Policy/ BJP up for solo fight in Maharashtra polls, but in talks with Shiv Sena
Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra is going full steam ahead with cadre mobilization and booth management plans for all the 288 assembly constituencies in the state, while reaching out to recalcitrant partner Shiv Sena to jointly fight next year’s assembly elections.
{{^adFree}}
The BJP is now working on so-called panna pramukhs (page chiefs) for each booth, who would be held accountable for a cluster of voters in a particular locality or housing society. Panna refers to each page in a voters’ list which has about 30 to 40 voters. A state BJP functionary, who is part of this exercise, said the party focused its energies on this programme as leaders engaged the Shiv Sena.
“This is an ongoing exercise and will continue parallel to the alliance talks. We have to keep the cadres ready for every eventuality, including fighting all 288 seats. There is no secrecy about this exercise as both Amitbhai and Fadnavis spoke publicly about it even as they offered a hand of friendship to the Shiv Sena," said this functionary on condition of anonymity.
{{^adFree}}
Earlier this month, the BJP, right from its national president Amit Shah to Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, offered a hand of friendship. But senior Sena leaders rejected the offer, reiterating party’s decision taken in January to fight “all future elections alone".
On 19 April, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray told reporters that the Sena had already taken a decision to not have an alliance. Asked about speculation over early elections in December, he said his Marathwada tour was part of the exercise to prepare the party for this possibility.
Maharashtra finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar replied on 20 April that an “alliance with the Shiv Sena was not a need for the BJP".
{{^adFree}}
The BJP’s booth management exercise, named “Ek booth, 25 youth", is part of its national cadre mobilization and expansion programme.
In Maharashtra, the programme began on 1 January, 2015, and the state BJP was set a membership target of 10 million. “We had made more than 10 million members by 31 March, 2015 when this phase ended. We were ridiculed for this ‘give a missed call and become a member’ campaign but now, even smaller parties like Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are following it," said another BJP functionary, who did not want to be named.
Maharashtra has about 90,000 polling booths across all constituencies. “This works out to around 300 booths per constituency. We have appointed booth chiefs for 87,000 booths and the exercise to appoint panna pramukhs is under way," the BJP functionary said.
{{^adFree}}
BJP strategists believe this model of cadre mobilization played a significant role in nearly all its electoral victories since 2014. “Amitbhai tried it first in Uttar Pradesh before the Lok Sabha elections and went even more micro for the UP assembly elections later. We did not have this model for the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections, a fact that explains why we fought 260 seats instead of all 288," he said.
Most recently, the plan was tried out in the Gujarat assembly elections. “The BJP vote share went up and so did the Congress vote share but it was our better booth management that helped us translate the higher vote share into seats," the BJP functionary said.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
{{^adFree}}
Catch all the Politics News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.