Over the past year, Rahul personally interviewed these leaders who, sources said, would be given key roles whenever the Congress vice-president gives his nod to be named as party chief. Widely regarded as a brilliant floor-manager and strategist, his induction from the Congress was a calculated risk the BJP national leadership took at the cost of potentially creating rifts within their own state unit, unhappy at the import of “corrupt elements of the Congress”. In an exclusive interview to TOI, Shah cited BJP’s victory in Assam and the jump in its vote-share in Kerala, but said: “We are not looking for only short-term goals.
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Accordingly, as opposed to a centralised strategy where MPs and Cabinet ministers led by the Prime Minister were its chief campaigners, the BJP ran a mostly localised campaign with Biswa Sarma and Sarbananda Sonowal, another import from the AGP, as the party’s chief ministerial candidate. “I appeal to our leadership to hand over the reins to the party youth, there is no other option”, he added.
Over the last 40 years, only twice have incumbent governments been unseated in West Bengal, 1977 and 2011. His views are echoed by party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi: “We all agree there needs to be reforms”.
The BJP has taken over as the leading national party. Its state governments govern 520 million Indians, up from 216 million in 2004. The BJP might be facing anti-incumbency issues, as any government does, but there are no distinct signs on the horizon that the voters are looking at Congress as the one and only alternative. The recent elections were no exception. It has now inched up to 31% in 2016. RSS karyakartas visited every constituency to cement a support base for the BJP.
The BJP, which contested 51 seats, won its first seat ever with O. Rajagopal’s victory in Nemom constituency.
In Kerala, the Congress got 23.7% of the vote, the lowest in 34 years.
Congress veteran Anil Shastri told Mail Today the status quo was hurting the party more than helping it. That ultimately drive India towards a Congress-free country. Stressing on the much needed change in the party, she said, “We all need to understand aspirations of the youth, Congress has always given opportunity to the youth”.
However, the Congress-Left Front alliance was decimated by the Trinamool which retained power with a bigger mandate than the 2011 elections.
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