New Delhi | There may be little gainsay in pointing out that the BJP undercurrent was visible across India but it goes without saying that the credit to exploit the same ought to be given to the teamwork of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party President Amit Shah. The camaraderie between the two goes back to politics of Gujarat and both of them have delivered success to the party in Gujarat prior to 2014 and later, across India in many states.
Both of them were also successful in tapping the weaknesses in the Opposition campaign strategies and it is their visionary long-term planning that the duo has successfully taken the fight to enemy fiefdom even in constituencies like Amethi and state level bastions like West Bengal.
His admirers say that Prime Minister Modi has always challenged the concept of status-quo, a feature hailed in Indian politics and in more ways than one, Mr Shah has complemented Mr Modi’s endeavor. Speaking politically, besides winning 2014, both the leaders have guided the party to consolidate its hold in at least 19 states including in Jammu and Kashmir and North east.
‘The way I am working is my USP. I don’t think till date there is anything wrong in that,’ Mr Modi had said in 2013 and this theme continues to guide his political roadmap. It was not without good reason that the magazine ‘The Economist’ in 2011 had hailed Prime Minister’s method of delivery, saying – ‘so many things work properly in Gujarat that it hardly feels like India’.
BJP leaders and Modi admirers seems to have endorsed his performance punctuated with some out-of-box experiments like demonetisation and triple talaq. Those who have followed the politics of Modi-Shah duo in terms of electoral management, also appreciate the manner they have pursued a mixed policy towards Muslims and took hardliner stand on Pakistan.
Mr Modi and Mr Shah also shared the same sense of purposefulness against Congress and the dynasty. Old-timers in Gujarat say in the late 1980s and 90s , the duo first challenged the Congress hold in rural Gujarat and also in the powerful sports bodies, specially in Cricket.
The Modi-Shah duo also systematically worked to wrest power in cooperative bodies in Gujarat and once, both shifted to national politics, both the leaders tirelessly slogged for hours to work with all sorts of social groups and politicians to corner Congress and other regional satraps.
Those who know both the leaders and their style of functioning, say when it came to handling Lalu Prasad — they also gave up personal ego and readily worked with Nitish Kumar and even gave him equal number of seats in Bihar.
At the same time, when it came to handling the powerful Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, the party strategists worked overtime in strong coordination with RSS wings and even did not mind embracing Mamata’s trusted aides including Mukul Roy into the party-fold.
