In his drive to convert the BJP into an election-winning juggernaut, party president Amit Shah is leaving nothing to chance.
At a meeting of the party’s accounts committee in Bhopal, BJP president Amit Shah makes a point. “From now on,” he says, looking around, “the party’s day-to-day expenses will be met through cheque donations.” There’s polite laughter all around. Most of the people in the room think it’s a joke and await a punchline. There is none. Shah, 54, is dead serious. The smiles evaporate. “Stop taking donations in cash,” he says.
Shah is on the move. Since April this year, he has embarked on a vistrit prawas (extended campaign), spending 85 of 115 days outside the national capital crisscrossing the countryside, visiting 22 states, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Gujarat to Assam. In the past 37 months, he has become the BJP’s most travelled president, having taken around 350 trips to states, covering 750 km a day. He takes mostly commercial flights—private jets are a strict no-no except during electioneering when time is of the essence. He skips hotels to stay in state government guest houses or party offices.
The nine months between the Uttar Pradesh elections in March and the Gujarat elections in December 2017 will be the longest break without elections. December onwards, it is going to be a non-stop electoral push for the BJP—protecting their bastion in Gujarat in December, going on the offensive against the last major Congress citadel, Karnataka, next March, and on the defensive in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in December 2018.
Shah is making the most of this nine-month hiatus to whip the party into shape. His nationwide tours are in the manner of a military commander visiting his field formations, not only to instil confidence in partymen, but to assess the ground situation as well. Predictably, his encounters leave a trail of hotly discussed anecdotes in their wake.
This story is from the October 09, 2017 edition of India Today.
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This story is from the October 09, 2017 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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