Amit Shah, the master strategist who never lost sight of Uttar Pradesh

NEW DELHI: Amit Shah stayed in a reasonably luxurious hotel in Patna as he supervised the assembly elections in 2015. The BJP lost that one. This year, as he orchestrated the campaign in UP, he chose far more modest digs on the first floor of the party office in Lucknow. The BJP chief also spent 17 nights in various parts of UP during the course of campaign after the poll dates were announced on January 4.

The reason was simple—making himself more accessible to party workers and also holding late-night meetings with local poll managers. While the latter were dubbed by many as a sign of desperation, those in the know were aware of the fact that he relishes latenight huddles for election management as it frees him for public functions during the day.

BJP’s historic win in UP has reaffirmed his credentials as Modi’s master election strategist. It also put to rest the suggestion that credit for BJP’s stellar show in the 2014 LS polls should go not to him but to the Modi wave alone.

Though he’s been busy with many organisational responsibilities and elections in other states, Shah never lost sight of UP. Having suffered a drubbing at the hands of the Lalu-Nitish combine in Bihar, Shah was careful to avoid any missteps in the state. Shah’s actions in the past year suggest that he kept shaping the broad direction of BJP’s UP strategy.

He took a gamble by replacing a Brahmin as the state party chief with a non-Yadav OBC in KP Maurya early last year. He also took a risk by broadly approving the induction of a large number of assembly level leaders of a cross-section of communities to stitch a rainbow coalition to reflect the popular support BJP got in 2014. During this, he managed to resolve internal power struggles as well as antagonism within the RSS and entrenched, vested interests in the party.

“Do you think, we could have managed to give so many tickets to outsiders to affirm our commitment to strike the right social chemistry on our own? It had express sanction from Amit Shah,” said a senior election manager involved in candidate selection.

Shah demonstrated his agile footwork to negotiate tough deliveries. The most striking example was the video of Shah pleading with Jat community leaders of western UP going viral on social media, days ahead of polls in the first phase. He also ensured communally sensitive remarks were kept to a minimum in the first two phases during which a substantial proportion of Muslims voted.

It was only after first two phases were over that the Kabristan-Shamshaan sentiment of anti-incumbency was invoked. Shah also personally spent time with top Uttar Pradesh leaders like Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra in the run-up to candidate selection and framing of the manifesto to ensure internal cohesion.