The Emerging BJP Will Be Invincible

BJP president Amit Shah, currently on a whirlwind 120-day nationwide tour, spoke to Deputy Editor Uday Mahurkar on his plans and vision for transforming the party in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and beyond. 

- Uday Mahurkar

Q. What defines the BJP that is emerging under your leadership?

A. It is essentially a back-to-basics BJP, yet a modern party equipped to face today’s challenges. We will have our own office buildings at the district level, each of which will be equipped with a library. We have training programmes to bring BJP workers on par with a 21st century party. All modern technological tools, including those on social media applications, are being used to grow this emerging party. Apart from this, a series of features that define the new BJP like an e-library, a department of good governance right down to the district level and another department for policy and research. We have floated 19 new departments to clearly delineate the party’s work and focus. We have also started 10 new projects.

Q. How do you see the party’s journey from a party of traders to one for the poor?

A. That we were a trader’s party was a misconception. We were a party based on a strong ideological footing. A party’s clear leaning is known after it comes to power. In Gujarat, people gave the BJP and Narendrabhai a long innings to develop a genuine pro-poor, pro-farmer model. We came to power in Delhi based on that model and the promise that it held out to a nation fed up with misgovernance and corruption. Then we soon rolled out pro-poor and pro-common man and pro-farmer schemes like Jan Dhan, Mudra loan, Ujjwala cooking gas cylinder, PM’s crop insurance and irrigation schemes.

Q. What explains the nine electoral victories you have been able to pull off in a row?

A. The popularity and performance of Narendra Modi as prime minister is the principal factor for our onward march coupled with the organisation’s ability to convert this strength into votes.