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Can BJP President Amit Shah replicate his Uttar Pradesh success in Kerala?
Party leaders in the State, who could not secure a seat in the Assembly or Lok Sabha for the party all these years, are hoping that Shah’s success-at-any-cost strategy will help them reap a good harvest in the local bodies elections next year and the Assembly polls in 2016.
Shah’s high-profile two-day visit, during which he made it clear that Kerala would be his focus State and handed an ‘action plan’ to the local leaders, has revved up the faction-ridden party. Just before his visit, RSS chief Mohan Bhagat had been here for five days, fine-tuning the Sangh, which has the largest number of shakhas in Kerala and which has made deep inroads in rural areas in recent years.
Tuesday’s state-wide hartal to protest the murder of an RSS activist is an expression of the new assertiveness of the BJP after Shah’s visit.
A senior BJP leader, who attended core meetings with Shah in Thiruvananthapuram, told BusinessLine that he is result-oriented in his approach to the party’s electoral future. “Shah told us that Kerala and West Bengal would be his focus States,” said the leader, requesting anonymity. “I am sure he will do in these two States what he did in UP in the recent Lok Sabha elections.”
Moment of arrival
Shah has asked Kerala leaders to build the party from the booth level and to increase the number of booth committees from the current 5,000 to 20,000 in a year. Next year’s local body elections should be the BJP’s moment of arrival, he has said.
The BJP is yet to arrive electorally in Kerala. While the ‘Modi wave’ hit almost all States in the Lok Sabha election, the party couldn’t secure a single seat here.
The Sangh Parivar has been trying its best to create a Hindu wave with its temple-centred activities. Most temples are being renovated, temple festivals are resurrected and old rituals reinvented. Several ceremonies and festivities — such as Vinayaka Chathurthi and Raksha Bandhan — which until recently were alien to Kerala, have now made surprise appearances.
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