Who is the most guarded entity in India?
If a name out of President or Prime Minister of India or Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi or Lal Krishna Advani or Narendra Modi or Mayawati props up in your mind, you're wrong.
It's Ram Lulla in Ayodhya. And he does not lord us over from a palace but a small, a little bigger than a large umbrella, tent. But the security that He commands is to be seen to be believed. Did I err here; yes I think, because He hardly needs any security and, hence, thousands of men in uniforms are largely there to guard the place against weaknesses of lesser mortals.
Still, people queue up as long as five km to have a fleeting darshan of Him. None complaints even if he is
soaked in sweat on a summer afternoon. Not far away the Saryu is still as majestic as it would have been in the days of Lordship of Ram. Splash your face with the Saryu waters and you feel you can sprint for a few kms straight.
In the by-lanes of Ayodhya, you may invariably come across a man riding a motorcycle with his forehead all but taken away by tika (religious mark). In an end number of temples in Ayodhya, priests will tell that they have pledged their votes for this man, who makes it a point that he seeks blessings of deities by noon.
That man is Lallu Singh. For over 22 years he was an MLA of Ayodhya. So, one should have expected people on the street to talk of him again, for innumerable giant pillars with beautiful carvings lie around awaiting the grand dream of a majestic temple built in Ayodhya becoming a reality.
But that was not the case. And a 12-year old boy, still in school uniform, with sparkle in eyes explaining how the economy of Ayodhya could metamorphose into a glittery dream world if the temple became a reality, talked of a eunuch. Gulshan Bindu was swearing in on Lord Hanuman to cure all ills of Ayodhya and she was getting the crowd to believe her words.
In Faizabad town (Ayodhya is part of it), a BJP election office was all but deserted. Over a cup of tea, the story unfolded from a hardened Hindutva foot-soldier, that Sonia Gandhi had conspired to send the eunuch in the holy town. Expanding the conspiracy theory further, he included Mulayam Singh Yadav also in laying the trap by fielding a Brahmin candidate -- Tej Narain Pandey alias Pawan Pandey -- against Lallu Singh.
Soon, Pandey defeated Lallu Singh, and Ayodhya got a young MLA after 22 years. That was 2012 UP Assembly elections.
In the same season, on a return journey to Delhi from Etawa, the pocket borough of Mulayam, after a rally, our vehicle stopped at a place for tea and snacks-stockings. A bearded man ensured that it was done fast. He did a namaste to the co-passenger, a Samajwadi Party leader.
"Guess, who is he," teased the Samajwadi. "No idea" came promptly. "He is a BJP MLA from here and is joining us. Now, guess who is sending him to SP," said the Samajwadi. To another "no idea", he said "it's Varun Gandhi". That was also before 2012 UP Assembly elections.
A few months before, a top BJP leader had said, off-the-record, that the party had a budget of Rs 200 crores for UP Assembly elections. More must have been spent, one can assume quite safely.
Still, the BJP was handed over the worst defeat in the state and it could win just 47 seats out of 403. And that marked an end to the emotive brand of politics that Advani had mid-wifed in 1990s.
Not more than two years later, the surveys now predict the BJP winning 40 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP. What happened in between is the big story that will be investigated and analysed in the times to come.
More than a year back, Amit Shah took charge of UP. The Kali Dadhi in the tapes of Gulail neither holds
press conferences no addresses rallies. He does not hit headlines also. But surveys are there and Narendra Modi has addressed some of the biggest rallies in the state so far. So, he has been working and results are being seen.
Ask those who know what's Shah doing and you would be told "micro-management". And through this Shah is making BJP's transition from the proponent of emotive politics to one of bread and butter.
"Out of 1.25 lakh booths, he left out 25,000, which were in the Muslim dominated areas, knowing that they will never vote for his party. In each of the booth, he has set up a team of about six people. They all have smart phones and have been taken to various parts of the country to acquaint them with know-hows of networking. It's ensured that these people never fall short of money and no one asks them how did they spend the money. They can directly connect to Shah on phone," sources in the saffron party said.
Next, they add, Shah set up a team of three to four people in each of the 74,000 Gram Panchayats in UP. They too got same training, money and phone as those at the booth levels. He further rose to the block and district level. And, thus, in the course of a year he set up a multi-tier teams of people running into lakhs with whom Shah has held many close-door meetings.
Additionally, he told all the "big leaders" of the BJP in UP (about 10) that they should let him know from where they would contest Lok Sabha elections and should not waste their time in ensuring tickets for their acolytes. And, thus, he bulldozed all factions in the party, which were earlier working at cross-purposes.
So, when Modi has to address a rally in UP, Shah's cells from booth to Gram Panchayat to block to district get activated and they arrange to bring people on their own at the venue. Thus, the buzz is created right at the ground zero a month before Modi addresses the rally and with huge size of the crowd the message is delivered, that the Modi wave has set in.
And, thus, the BJP, whose obituary was written in 2012 Assembly elections, seems running away with most number of Lok Sabha seats in UP. That also gives a major fillip to Modi's aim of reaching close to the magic figure of 272. The difference in Advani's BJP and that of Modi is massive hard work, planning and funds in the hands of workers not leaders.
Ask those who know what's Shah doing and you would be told "micro-management". And through this Shah is making BJP's transition from the proponent of emotive politics to one of bread and butter.
"Out of 1.25 lakh booths, he left out 25,000, which were in the Muslim dominated areas, knowing that they will never vote for his party. In each of the booth, he has set up a team of about six people. They all have smart phones and have been taken to various parts of the country to acquaint them with know-hows of networking. It's ensured that these people never fall short of money and no one asks them how did they spend the money. They can directly connect to Shah on phone," sources in the saffron party said.
Next, they add, Shah set up a team of three to four people in each of the 74,000 Gram Panchayats in UP. They too got same training, money and phone as those at the booth levels. He further rose to the block and district level. And, thus, in the course of a year he set up a multi-tier teams of people running into lakhs with whom Shah has held many close-door meetings.
Additionally, he told all the "big leaders" of the BJP in UP (about 10) that they should let him know from where they would contest Lok Sabha elections and should not waste their time in ensuring tickets for their acolytes. And, thus, he bulldozed all factions in the party, which were earlier working at cross-purposes.
And, thus, the BJP, whose obituary was written in 2012 Assembly elections, seems running away with most number of Lok Sabha seats in UP. That also gives a major fillip to Modi's aim of reaching close to the magic figure of 272. The difference in Advani's BJP and that of Modi is massive hard work, planning and funds in the hands of workers not leaders.
No comments:
Post a Comment