Madhya Pradesh election 2023: How BJP is reimagining its grand poll plan

The BJP has set out to organise its state unit and is working on all fronts to prevent a recurrence of the Karnataka elections, where the party suffered a defeat in May

As part of the campaign for elections later this year, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah has given party workers in Madhya Pradesh the following tasks this week: calling 200 people each week, having tea with at least two voters each day, and writing slogans on polling booths, reported ThePrint.

Shah began assigning weekly chores last month during his July 30 visit to Madhya Pradesh, said party sources.

The BJP has set out to organise its state unit and is working on all fronts to prevent a recurrence of the Karnataka elections, where the party was defeated in May. Senior leaders are now reaching out to party cadres through zonal meetings, election management convenors have been appointed at the district level, and weekly targets have been set for workers.  

 

"Weekly targets are fixed to fine-tune the election machinery and organisation," said BJP state secretary general Ranveer Singh Rawat.

"After the ongoing assembly meetings in each constituency conclude on August 20, MLA pravas [tours] will begin in which each selected legislator from other states will visit an assembly seat for a week and get feedback from the public ahead of the Jan Ashirwad Yatra next month," Rawat added.

Senior leaders, including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state BJP president VD Singh, as well as national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and MP election management convenor Narendra Singh Tomar, are meeting in different zones of Madhya Pradesh to quell discontent and boost cadre morale, according to party sources.

Also Read: MP election 2023: Congress identifies 106 candidates for upcoming polls

BJP's weekly goals ahead of Madhya Pradesh elections

Amit Shah has charged party members with showcasing the successes of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, which has been in office for three terms, and comparing them to those of the Congress' Digvijaya Singh's tenure as chief minister.

Each member has been instructed to write party slogans on the booth walls every week. MP has a total of 64,000 booths.

In July, the party named Narendra Singh Tomar as the election management convenor for MP, and this week, the party nominated 57 district election convenors across the state to focus on infighting and keep cadre morale high before the elections. 

According to Bhagwandas Sabnani, the party's general secretary in the state, these convenors are senior officials who have been appointed to ensure "consistent engagement with the cadres to build momentum for the elections."

Another party functionary, who requested anonymity, alleged that the appointment of district convenors also had another purpose. 

"Many of those leaders who have been given these posts may not get a party ticket for the assembly elections...they have been given this responsibility at the district level to keep them involved in the elections," the functionary explained. 

The BJP nominated former cabinet minister Jayant Malaiya to lead its manifesto committee last month. Malaiya lost the 2018 assembly election to Congress leader Rahul Lodhi, who joined the saffron party with Scindia in 2020. Lodhi ran in the Damoh by-election in 2021 but lost, blaming Malaiya. According to party sources, Malaiya has been sulking since last year, when the party handed him a show cause notice for indiscipline.

Similarly, Ajay Bishnoi, who has previously questioned the party leadership, has been appointed to the election management and manifesto committees. 

The BJP's Backward Morcha chief, Narayan Singh Kushwaha, who lost the Gwalior south seat to Praveen Pathak in 2018, has also been appointed to the election management committee.

"The main role of convenors is to involve former party officials or legislators in the campaign, address any discontent before the polls, and provide feedback to the leadership about constituencies," said Jawahar Singh, the election convenor in Sagar district.

"The older generation, which may have felt alienated over the years, has been given responsibility for election management," he added.

BJP's veteran outreach strategy for MP polls

Shah has convened four meetings of party leaders in Delhi and Bhopal since July of this year. Last week, MP leaders were summoned to Delhi to discuss weekly milestones and the Prime Minister's rally in Sagar on August 12 to build the groundwork for a Ravidas temple.

Last week, CM Chouhan also visited an old colleague and former finance minister Raghavji, who was dismissed from the party in 2013 after a sodomy charge was levelled against him. The Madhya Pradesh High Court, however, rejected the First Information Report (FIR) against him in June of this year.

The CM's meeting with the 90-year-old Raghavji was strategically planned to send a message to the cadres that the BJP stood for its people, said a party source.

Meanwhile, Tomar has been touring the state, from Rewa to Guna, to unite party members ahead of the election.

According to a party insider, Tomar stated last week at a meeting in Narela, Bhopal, that "we are human beings...there will always be complaints against each other. However, when we are at war, we must set aside our grudges and concentrate on destroying our adversaries. There will always be time to fix our issues after that."