Fly on the Wall
No
backseat driving
Finally, the cat is out of the bag. The continuous whispering campaign in the corridors of power going on for months that something is wrong somewhere between the BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS, has been put to rest. It all began when a powerful BJP general secretary (Organization) B L Santosh vanished from the media glare for the past few months. Normally, Santosh, a full time RSS pracharak, deputed to look after BJP's organizational affairs, was always seated on the dais whenever PM Modi, BJP Chief JP Nadda & Home Minister Amit Shah held any function at the party's headquarters. But lately, he was conspicuous by his absence and remained invisible leading to whispers in the 'Parivar' that something is amiss. It emerged that the BJP leadership was not giving adequate attention to him and not accepting any of his recommendations particularly after Karnataka's debacle in the Assembly polls. It had a cascading effect as full-time RSS pracharaks deputed to the BJP and not calling the shots anymore. The RSS pracharaks in the BJP are doing the task assigned to them rather vice-versa. The BJP does not aspire to be the “party with a difference” but become a “party of relevance” at the national level. It is first time that the BJP has footprints across India. The RSS will continue to be its ideological mentor but will not be deciding its day-to-today activities. The last word on this role reversal has yet to be written.
Wooing A new segment
It was quite surprising that Prime Minister Modi took upon himself to express confidence that the stock market would experience a robust surge following the announcement of election results on June 4. It is quite unusual that the PM said so in a TV interview on May 19 in the midst of the Lok Sabha polls. It was more surprising as Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said on May 13 that the stock market will “shoot up” after June 4 claiming the BJP and its allies will come to power in huge majority and that the NDA alliance will cross the 400-plus seats mark. Amit Shah even went to the extent of advising the people to "Buy Before June 4" to reap the harvest at a time when the markets were making huge corrections. A close confidante of powers that be said that neither the PM and nor the HM do or say anything without a reason. It was explained that the BJP is nurturing a very important constituency of voters by making such predictions. There are more than eight crore retail investors in the share market who were worried about their investments if the BJP did not win at the hustings. These new investors have come to the share market after 2015 as PM Modi's leadership has given them enough confidence that India will hit a jackpot. These eight crore investors were worried over the falling markets and the BJP leadership wanted to calm them down. Secondly, these eight crore investors may vote for the BJP & Modi to ensure that investments give good returns.
Keeping track!
The Modi dispensation is keeping a hawk's eye on the country's 900-odd news channels dishing out news & views 24X7. A special floor has been dedicated to monitor these news channels round the clock in all regional, English and national languages. The monitors are deputed in three shifts to closely watch every piece of news & views are beamed. Apart from the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, the PMO also gets a report regularly and corrective steps are taken as may be desired. This system exited during the earlier regimes too but it was poor. Now a battery of around 2400 monitors keeps an eye on what's going on 24X7. Similarly, radio and newspapers are also being monitored by separate teams and daily reports are part of the drill. The real time monitoring is helping the ruling dispensation immensely in getting fastest feedback and changing strategy accordingly.
Chouhan has built bridges too
Former
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is BJP's new star
campaigner who has built bridges with the party leadership. He has
made an impact wherever he is sent by the central leadership for
campaigning. Since he belongs to the OBC community, the BJP is
finding him useful to woo them. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is
another most sought after campaigner and has pan-India appeal
particularly among the members of the Rajput community. But the
outreach of Chouhan is larger due to the presence of nearly 55% plus
OBCs in the country. Chouhan
was put into the operation after low voter turnout was witnessed in
the first phase of the general election. He was sidelined and sulking
though he was party's candidate from the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat.
Chouhan wanted to contest from the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency
to demolish senior Congress leader Kamal Nath’s stronghold for more
than four decades. However, the party denied him the opportunity to
emerge as a possible giant killer. But things have changed for the
better and he is in demand more than many national leaders. The Gods
may finally smile for Chouhan.
