Decoding Amit Shah's campaign: How he conquered Uttar Pradesh

It was a long, meticulous operation guided by sound strategy. Uttar Pradesh, the
battleground state caught in a maze of caste and communal equations, needed a
special approach and a special emphasis if the BJP had to score an impressive
victory. Finally, it was much more than impressive: 71 out of the states 80 seats
beat even the expectations of the men who made it a reality.
With elections over, the professionals who manned the BJPs workstations are back
at their respective locations. But the story of how they made the mission
impossible a success is still being discussed with a degree of awe.
Crafting the strategy for ensuring a big win and implementing to perfection is no
less than a management lesson put in action. It all started on June 12, 2013, when
Amit Shah, who at that time most people in Uttar Pradesh knew only as a trusted
lieutenant of Narendra Modi and a former Gujarat minister, came to Lucknow after
being named the in-charge of the state unit of BJP. The move irked most seniors
sitting in the UP BJP head office on Lucknows Vidhan Sabha Marg, bang opposite
the state legislative assembly building.
But Shah did what he was meant to do. Along with state BJP president Laxmikant
Bajpai he toured the state extensively and identified areas where a major push was
needed. Back in Lucknow, Shah created his own core team that worked parallel to
state BJP executive. It comprised Sunil Bansal, former national convenor of Youth
Against Corruption (YAC), the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad campaign
launched in 2011, Mahendra Singh, and Ratnakar. Belonging to Rajasthan, Bansal
a senior RSS pracharak, was responsible for fixing programmes of senior leaders.
Mahendra Singh is a BJP MLC and Ratnakar, another RSS functionary. Bansal
brought a small team of his own that was bilingual, tech savvy and used to timebound execution. These included Anil Singh, Arun Kant, Ashutosh and Devesh
Kumar, engineers both and Abhishek Kaushik, a tech expert focusing on social

media. Sanjeev Singh, national co-convenor of IT Cell, BJP, was stationed in

Lucknow for this duration as also Saurabh Rao, co-convener of the UP BJP IT cell.
The next task was to connect people who were BJP supporters and those who were
not but were influential in their respective areas. They had to be moulded to bring
around others to support the BJP. This meant a huge number of individuals who
had to be contacted at least once every day or more, and they had to be equipped
with the wherewithal to take the message forward.
By January-February, the ABVP cadre had been included into the task and the
message had started going ahead with the Kalash Yatra. Then came the Modi Rath,
the mini-vans equipped with GPS, pictures, posters, audio and video of Modis
message, songs and music. As many as 450 such vans were sent to villages and
small towns and the slogans such as Abki baar Modi sarkaar, Modi aanewale hain,
Hum Modiji ko laanewale hain, Achchhe din aane wale hain and some TV jingles
became popular even in areas where BJP had no presence. Volunteers traveled on
these vans taking Modi and his message to the people. The formation of boothlevel teams continued simultaneously.
The objective was to have one worker in every booth, and the Lucknow team
collected about four lakh such individuals with their names, addresses, names of
Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies, number of the booth they represented and
mobile telephone numbers. Those who did not have mobile phones were given one
with an activated and prepaid SIM card. Callers from the BJP call centre talked to
these people every day, regardless of their location.
Their responses were compiled and at the end of the day a comprehensive report
was sent to Amit Shah. Every morning and evening decisions were taken to sort
out any problems.
AFP

For support staff, about two dozen young men were picked up from the Surya
Foundation, a non-government organization established in 1992 by Jai Prakash
Agarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of Surya Roshni Limited, having its
office in Jhinjholi, Haryana. The avowed objective of the Surya Foundation is to
promote a national consciousness and social awareness among people, especially
youth. It works in the areas of personality and skill development among youth and
promoting Naturopathy and Yoga, besides other things. The boys sent from the
Foundations training centre in Haryana came mostly from Delhi, western UP and
Haryana.
The 20-seater call centre was manned by professional tele-callers who were trained
by Kameshwar Mishra, convener of state BJPs Investor Protection Cell and a
former co-convener of the IT cell. Having past experience in running call centres,
he told them about the language, responses and patience needed for the exercise.
The call centre was given the specific task of calling up district committee
members, travelers on the Modi rath, and booth level operatives. The questions
asked to them were as simple as problems in driving the vans and petrol for them,
number of people contacted that day, any specific feedback or complaint, any
requirement of money or resources, availability of campaign material and
programme for the next day.
The district level and booth level workers were more than happy to provide
information on a daily basis. We did not give any monetary incentive to them but
simply gave them importance for what they were, says an RSS functionary.
These simple people from remote villages and small towns have been the source
of all parties political strength. They are the last-mile connect with the people for
top leaders. We simply brought them into the core of our network, he said.
The strategy is quite similar to the rural marketing measures followed by consumer
companies since the decade of the 60s. At that time also products such as washing

soap, toothpaste and tea packets were used to be available at roadside shops in
remote villages. The men selling this stuff were contacted by company
representatives and given importance as the last-mile connect with their
consumers, says Mishra.
Sanjeev Singh, who was closely involved in the process, says the entire exercise
was organized as a professional, result-oriented operation. We are used to working
according to a plan and keep the result in mind all the time. The political
significance of what we were doing added to the sense of accuracy and urgency,
he says.