BJP central team took reins of campaign to cement win

Behind the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in Rajasthan, and, more importantly, the quality of it -- the part won 115 of the 199 seats that went to polls -- was a mix of the usual and the unusual.

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran and Urvashi Dev Rawal

The usual involved a combination of Hindutva and welfare (the second all the more relevant given the outgoing Congress government’s welfare schemes), and a sharp focus on corruption scandals and crime. The unusual was a decision to fight the election under “collective leadership”, a departure from the norm in the state where the chief minister has usually been either the Congress’ Gehlot or the BJP’s Vasundhara Raje. For the BKJP, of course, this also meanmt fighting the election, like it does most, in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A major reason behind the party high command’s decision to take reins of the election in their hands was the knowledge that factionalism in the state unit posed a big challenge and threaten the BJP’s chances, according to senior party leaders.

That done, a senior BJP leader who asked not to be done said the party decided to focus on “simmering anger” among the electorate on issues such as appeasement and corruption.