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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra is going to sell the achhe din (good days) plank to voters in the run-up to the Assembly polls. In an interview with Sanjay Jog, state BJP unit chief Devendra Fadnavis explains the party's strategy. Edited excerpts:
What is the current status of the party's preparations for the Assembly polls in Maharashtra?
We have worked out an elaborate plan from booth level up to the state level. There are about 80,000 booths across the state and we have decided to appoint a team of 10 to 15 party members at each booth. So far, 70 per cent of the booths have been covered and the objective is to complete the necessary exercise in all booths.
Besides, the state core committee comprising senior leaders is in the midst of completion of region-wise tours to review the situation. From the organisation point of view, Maharashtra has been divided into 56 districts where one-on-one discussions will soon be completed to understand the ground reality.
Ministers from the Central government and also from BJP-ruled states will spend a full day in an assigned Assembly constituency purely for organisational work. Those visiting ministers won't address any press conference or public meetings but will only focus on organisational build-up for the polls.
Are you implementing Amit Shah's Uttar Pradesh model in Maharashtra? What will be his role?
Our party president Amit Shah is a planner and implementer of organisational and political decisions. He has proved it in Uttar Pradesh.
But let me clarify that ours will not be a Uttar Pradesh, but a Maharashtra model focusing on all 288 Assembly seats by reaching out to the maximum number of voters.
The Maharashtra poll strategy envisages concentration more on weak seats, generally coined as C-category seats simultaneously with A- and B-category seats. The objective is to fully exploit the potential of the party cadre and thereby win every seat including those of partner Shiv Sena and other allies of Mahayuti.
Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a call of 272 plus. That call was not only for the BJP but for the alliance - the National Democratic Alliance - as a whole. Similarly, for us, every seat in the state is crucial.
But a chorus is mounting within the BJP for breaking its alliance with Shiv Sena and fighting the Assembly polls independently.
Let me clarify that in every party certain members strongly argue in favour of a solo fight. In BJP, too, some members expressed this view. Our alliance with the Shiv Sena is not a mere political alliance but an ideological one.
Has the BJP dropped fighting Assembly polls independently after Shah's snub?
Amitji has said that the BJP's alliance with the Shiv Sena will continue. Our aim is to cash in on anti-incumbency and burgeoning discontent against the ruling Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine.
Besides, Amitji insisted that all efforts need to be made to further strengthen Mahayuti which comprises the Republican Party of India, the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, the Rashtriya Samaj Party apart from the BJP and Shiv Sena. Amitji also directed that we should rope in people with great standing into the BJP, but with the rider that their support will be unconditional.
The BJP and Shiv Sena have been engaged in a verbal duel over seat-sharing. Besides, other partners of Mahayuti want their share. Haven't these factors made the seat-sharing exercise more complex?
I agree seat-sharing is a difficult exercise. There is public posturing by some Mahayuti leaders, but the ground reality is quite different. We will soon launch talks and are quite confident that we will seal the deal.
But the Shiv Sena has already started projecting its president, Uddhav Thackeray, as chief minister. The BJP is making a similar demand about its candidate. What do you have to say?
I can speak about my party. I am the state party unit president and I am leading the party to victory. I have no intention of asking for anything. Nor have I made any demand for any post. The central leadership will take a decision in this regard.
How will the party fill the vacuum created by Gopinath Munde's death?
It is really difficult to fill a vacuum left by anyone. Forty years of work and the leadership Munde gave cannot be replaced in a day. But we will try.
Despite the Lok Sabha debacle, the Congress-NCP alliance government has not given up and has offered a slew of sops to lure voters. How will you take on the ruling combine?
The state government has lost the mandate to rule after the humiliating Lok Sabha defeat. The voters have lost faith in it and the state government has no credibility left. Fifteen years of non-performance cannot be made up by few sops, including 16 per cent reservation to the Maratha and five per cent to the Muslim community. We are determined to expose the Congress-NCP government's policy paralysis, decision paralysis and non-implementation of decisions it has itself taken. Further, we will take on the government on the issue of a series of scams.
Voters have expressed displeasure about certain decisions taken by the Modi government. So how are you confident of riding on the Modi wave?
We will approach voters on the good governance plank. We strongly feel that Modi's vision of "sab ka saath sab ka vikas" can be translated into a reality in Maharashtra. The BJP-Shiv Sena led government is best suited to do it.
The Modi government is doing well. The economy is reviving. The Budget has been applauded by every section and we don't see any problem to win the ensuing Assembly poll.
