Road to 2024 | With Narendra Modi as the message, Karnataka polls as leg work, BJP lays ground for 2024

However, with the BJP, the messaging is non-stop, with the string of events marking 100 episodes of Modi’s monthly radio programme Mann ki Baat a perfect example. It was a snapshot of the now nine years of the Modi government, a national platform for its various schemes, and an image-enhancing exercise for the PM himself – in the midst of a crucial election that is expected to be tough for the BJP.

Plus, it set the ground for the BJP’s 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, which is already ticking along. In Karnataka, particularly, the party has ensured that the intense Assembly campaign was also used to reach out to voters for the big battle next year. As per some vistaraks or full-time workers, “50% of the work for 2024 is already done”.

In Tumkur town, a vistarak who refused to be named – saying what matters is their work, not their names – detailed how they had been assigned the talk of explaining to voters why the BJP had taken a particular stance on an issue. For example, Modi dismissing promises by Opposition parties as “revdi culture”, while differentiating it from the BJP government’s own welfare schemes.

He said he has been talking to roadside vendors along the highway, among others, on why freebies actually “turn around and bite voters in the back”. “We tell them that the money for the free power or free saris indirectly comes out of their pockets (in terms of taxes, or raised prices)… that when they get these free things, the bill comes via the backdoor. Many of them understand the dangers behind freebies,” the vistarak said.

A party worker gave the example of connecting voters to the “vishwaguru” tag for Modi. “The people are happy to know that PM Modi is a global leader, and earns respect as a vishwaguru. But, after sometime, they can ask how it is of any concern to them. So we tell them that PM Modi’s credibility and acceptability help attract investments from across the globe, and in turn create jobs for their children.”

This message of keeping the big picture in mind is visible among workers down the line across Karnataka. Any ardent BJP supporter can give you arguments on why the rise in fuel prices, inflation or joblessness are justified, as well as how Modi has raised India’s stature in the world.

Under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, the BJP has always been ahead of the game when it comes to messaging. In the 2019 election, it used WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook to its advantage, with party leaders claiming to have created three WhatsApp groups for each of the 90,000 polling booths, and cultivating more than a million social media volunteers to take its message to voters.

In an address to BJP workers on the party’s foundation day recently, the PM asked them to use Instagram reels too for this.

Apart from Karnataka, the vistaraks have been at work in the eight other states which will be seeing elections this year. In January, the BJP deputed them in every Assembly seat in these states, apart from the 160 Lok Sabha constituencies it earlier identified as ones needing an extra push for the 2024 elections.

They undergo regular training sessions, where the BJP updates them on what the party wants them to highlight during their interactions.

However, the success of even this elaborate and meticulously planned effort depends ultimately on whether the BJP has an organisation set-up in a particular state. Where it doesn’t, such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, it faces a challenge. Another hallmark of a BJP campaign is how the Prime Minister is at its front and centre, the entire discourse shaped around his persona, the assumption in the party being that his popularity, undiminished as his 10th year begins, will over-ride any anti-incumbency, that the national will triumph over the regional or local.

Come May 13, this will be tested in Karnataka.