New Delhi: Two days ago, over 2,000 workers and leaders from the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) joined the BJP in Gujarat. Earlier this week, AAP Chhattisgarh chief Komal Hupendi and some other key officebearers of the party resigned amid speculation that they are headed for the BJP.
On Saturday, Ashok Tanwar, a former Congress MP and AAP leader, joined the BJP in Haryana.
The BJP is making a big push to induct defectors from other parties around the country as it targets scoring 50 percent of the votes in the coming Lok Sabha elections — something that has never been achieved before.
The message has been sent to party leaders in all states: There is no “enemy” in politics, no leader is too insignificant, and even independents — whether or not they have been winning — should be wooed to join the BJP as the polls draw near.
The BJP’s voteshare in 2019 was 37.4, when it won 303 seats. It is looking to take its seat tally to 350 seats as PM Narendra Modi seeks a third term in office.
The party has asked state units — through a circular, which has been accessed by ThePrint — to make a list of potential defectors among influential leaders in every Lok Sabha constituency. In this no-holds-barred approach, the party has asked leaders to even take into account Independent candidates who have contested elections over the past 20 years.
As part of its poll preparations, the party has also divided the Lok Sabha seats into 136 clusters. Every cluster chief has been tasked with overseeing poll preparation in 3-4 Lok Sabha seats and working to bring them into the BJP fold.
On Tuesday, at a meeting of the cluster chiefs in Delhi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked them to identify Opposition leaders in their respective seats who are influential and can join the BJP.
“The focus is to enhance the party’s voteshare and win all the Lok Sabha seats in the state,” Rajasthan BJP vice-president Prabhulal Saini told ThePrint. Saini is one of the cluster in-charges, overseeing the seats of Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Banswara and Dungarpur.
“The party has asked us to shortlist influential leaders in every
Lok Sabha seat who can join the BJP to make the party invincible.”
The message to woo defectors was also conveyed to BJP officebearers by PM Modi during a meeting in December to chart out the party’s poll strategy.
“The party should not view Opposition candidates, even those who secured only 2,000 votes, as enemies,” he was quoted as saying by leaders who attended the meeting.
“In politics, there’s no such thing as an enemy. Workers should always look for untapped voters,” he added.
In line with this message, the BJP has constituted a high-level committee — comprising Union minister Bhupender Yadav, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and party general secretaries Vinod Tawde and B.L. Santhosh — to screen and induct leaders from other parties.
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‘BJP is a large ship’
A party functionary who attended Tuesday’s meeting said they have been asked to make a greater effort to induct defectors in states where the party is electorally or ideologically weak, from West Bengal to Bihar, Punjab and the southern states.
“But it does not mean that, in states where the party is strong, we will leave rival leaders who are not happy in their party,” the functionary added, saying “such defections will not only dampen the Opposition’s morale and create ‘mahaul’ for a BJP win but add to the party’s voteshare”.
“The BJP is a large ship and the largest political party of the world and it has bandwidth of power-sharing for everyone.”
In the 10 years of the Modi government, the BJP has inducted several Opposition leaders, including those considered to be part of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s core team.
These include Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, and R.P.N. Singh, besides Himanta Biswa Sarma, Pema Khandu, N. Biren Singh, Narayan Rane, Capt. Amarinder Singh, Rana Sodhi, Manpreet Badal, Digambar Kamat, S.M. Krishna, and R.C.P. Singh.
Bringing in these leaders was meant to strengthen the BJP’s hand in the northeast as well as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Bihar.
In Kerala, a state where the BJP has failed to make considerable inroads, the BJP has inducted K.J. Alphons, Tom Vadakkan, and Congress veteran A.K. Antony’s son Anil.
Milind Deora joining the Shiv Sena — the Eknath Shinde-led party allied with the BJP — earlier this week, on the day Rahul Gandhi started the second leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, was also a well-planned strategy to “dent the Congress’ political atmosphere”, a source in the BJP said.
However, BJP sources clarified that they have been asked to focus on potential defectors from all parties, not just the Congress.
‘Everyone welcome’
No party has ever got 50 percent of the votes in the general elections. In the 1984 election that was held soon after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the Congress, led by her son Rajiv, secured 404 of the parliament’s (then) 514 seats. In 1962, the Congress, then led by former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, secured 361 seats. But on both occasions the voteshares remained in the 40s.
In 2019, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) overall secured 45 percent of the votes and 353 seats — its highest ever tally. The BJP secured a 50 percent voteshare in 224 of the seats it won.
Explaining the BJP strategy further, a party functionary said “big leaders in every constituency have thousands of resourceful supporters associated with them”.
“If we can’t manage to get the second runner-up in a seat to join the BJP, we can approach two-three others who can add up to match the second runner-up’s voteshare,” the leader added.
“If you make a list of independents, there are hundreds who got a sizeable chunk of votes in assembly and Lok Sabha polls.”
The circular also calls for focus on rural areas, telling party leaders to attempt inducting pradhans and deputy pradhans as well, besides members of local bodies at the level of both cities as well as villages.
“The party has a very strong footing in urban pockets. The party wants a greater holding in the power structures of villages and local bodies,” said a party source, adding that “cadres and leaders have been asked to spend one day in villages, with the BJP Kisan Morcha also asked to tap the village vote”.
Among other things, the morcha has been asked to hold kisan sammelans in every constituency.
Added another source: “The prime minister has asked party leaders to induct new leaders but not leave older ones who are not active. Party leaders have been told to meet them, have tea or breakfast with them, listen to their grievances and invite them for party programmes so that they can feel part of the BJP family.”
“Every leader has followers and influence,” the leader added. “The party has even asked cadres to prepare lists of cricketers and filmstars, writers and religious heads as part of the BJP’s expansion plans.”
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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