The road ahead: BJP reads signals for 2024, looks at areas and strategies to work on

With the results being widely seen as an endorsement to the BJP’s welfare politics — various schemes and an effective delivery system, cutting across caste and religious lines — party sources said they would focus on consolidating its new “vote bank” of “women and beneficiaries of welfare schemes” to consolidate them further.

Leaders within

Internally, the emergence of Yogi Adityanath as a leader who “managed to blend his Hindutva image into the champion of development and good governance” and got a “strong mandate for himself” could alter power equations in the party. Asked what would be the impact on the internal party system, a senior party leader said: “You cannot ignore Yogi at any point now. You cannot overlook the fact that he got a powerful mandate for himself in the most crucial state. He has emerged as a leader who is equal or just second only to Modi. None of the top leaders other than Modi got such a mandate.”

Party leaders indicated that the BJP would soon start work on addressing issues in its state units, especially those hit by internal feuds including Rajasthan and Karnataka, at the organisation level. Work will also begin to ensure that candidates handpicked by its leadership win the presidential and vice presidential elections coming up in a few months. With the numbers in its favour, the only task would be zeroing in on the “right candidate” as put by a party leader.

The BJP also sees the results as a referendum on PM Modi’s popularity and the party’s governance record. Having refused during the campaign to accept the elections as a referendum on Modi or the Centre, many leaders now claimed the results were an approval to Modi’s policies in the last seven years.

Opposition vote-banks

With the Samajwadi Party bagging a significant number of seats and vote share, up from 22% to 32%  the BJP faces an area of concern and will look to win back support groups that appear to have gone with the SP. During the campaign, Home Minister Amit Shah had worked to win back the Jats – a community that got miffed with the BJP over the farmer agitation – and had extended an invitation to the Rashtriya Lok Dal; party sources indicated it could work towards getting the RLD into the NDA fold. The party will also focus on winning back non-Yadav OBC communities, sections of whom could have backed the SP in this election, the sources said.

BJP leaders claim its “development agenda” has worked marvelously in all the four states , except in Punjab where it says it did not have much stake.

The demolition of of the BSP would be another area on which the BJP would unleash fresh strategies. The party could be taking initiatives both at the organisation and the government levels to consolidate its Dalit support base across the country.

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