Interview: Strategic planning and hard work bagged us three states

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Pramod Mahajan is savouring the victory in three of the four states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh – where assembly elections were held on December 1. It is in many ways a personal vindication for the man who had to leave the Union Cabinet at the beginning of the year, though he denies it.

In an interview with Gulf News, Mahajan shares his views on how things turned out well for the party in the three Hindi heartland states, and how it was the result of strategic planning coupled with hard work, especially of the party's foot-soldiers.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

GULF NEWS: Was there a grand strategy when you went into this round of assembly elections?
PRAMOD MAHAJAN: There was no grand strategy, but we analysed each state separately. In the case of Madhya Pradesh we realized that Digvijay Singh was invincible, and that he would pull some trick out of his hat at the last minute. So, Arun (Jaitley) concentrated on the three developmental issues – bijli (electricity), paani (water), and sadak (roads).

In Chhattisgarh, it was a different kind of scenario. We could not have played on developmental issues there. There was surplus energy in the state, and as Chhatisgarh abutted on the national highway, roads was not an issue. But we found that Ajit Jogi was dominating the media, the bureaucracy, and even the opposition.

He had a stranglehold over the state, and he was like a small Saddam Hussein, or a small Indira Gandhi during the emergency. There was fear all round. So we made Ajit Jogi, the issue.

When we turned to Rajasthan, we found that Ashok Gehlot was neither invincible like Digvijay Singh, nor was he a monster like Ajit Jogi. People in Rajasthan did not like him, nor did they hate him. So, the strategy on Rajasthan had to focus on the selection of good candidates, the management of the caste factor, and the use of high-tech propaganda.

In the case of Delhi, where we lost the election, there was a difference in approach between the party's Delhi leaders and the central election committee. The Delhi leadership felt that the way to win the election was to promise concessions to the slum-dwellers, to the tradesmen. But we wanted them to concentrate on the misdeeds of Sheila Dikshit.

But the party leaders in Delhi did not heed us because they were senior to us.

Arun Jaitley and you are now being praised as the grand strategists who had brought victory to BJP?
I am not displaying humility when I say this. I am not known for my humility. The truth is that strategy is only the third element in an election victory.

First comes, public opinion. Second, the hard work of the party workers. They worked very hard.
Though it is the soldiers who fight and win wars, it is the generals who get credit. The soldier is recognised only when he dies.

Strategy is the third factor. These elections have proved that the second generation of BJP leaders are winners, and there was not much competition either from Congress president Sonia Gandhi or the Congress chief ministers.

Did the Jat factor prove crucial in Rajasthan?
Let me tell you our general approach in Rajasthan. We carried out a caste profile at the district level, while at the constituency level we accommodated all the major castes. It would not have helped to give the party ticket to the majority caste. There was need for caste management. At the state level, we projected Vasundhara Raje Scindia, who transcended the caste factor. As she was a woman, there was no caste bias. God has created only two castes – man and woman. All the rest has been created by human beings.

Was it a conscious decision to project women chief ministerial candidates?
In a sense, it was a conscious choice. But Vasundhara Raje and Uma Bharti were not chosen on the basis of their gender alone. There were other women as well.

Vasundhara Raje and Uma Bharti were also chosen because of their leadership qualities.

Is the BJP's victory in these three states a personal vindication for you?
The media would have certainly written my second political obituary if the BJP had lost these elections. They wrote the first one when I resigned from the cabinet at the beginning of the year. This victory is no vindication for me. I have fought so many elections in the 30 years of my political career, won some, and lost some. People also forget that I was also the general secretary in-charge during the 1998 elections as well.