BJP – National Factory Producing Regional Satraps
In the days to come, the country will more often hear the names – Biplab Deb and Sunil Deodhar.
While Deodhar has been the architect of the BJP’s stunning win in Tripura, Deb, the state BJP President, was its face. In all probability, Deb will be the new chief minister of this north-eastern state.
Deodhar has been a pracharak who has done his time in the northeast. Originally a Mumbaikar, Deodhar was also in the news when he handled PM Narendra Modi’s election in Varanasi. He has also handled other parliamentary elections.
Deb, a gym instructor, who has earlier worked in the office of Central BJP Ministers and MPs, was originally a low-key replacement to a long-standing Tripura BJP President.
As the election campaign picked steam, Deb became its face.
This, then, is yet another addition to the BJP’s bouquet of regional leaders that the party has so assiduously cultivated.
Modi himself was a state chief minister before he became Prime Minister.
The ability to produce strong, reliable regional leaders is what makes the BJP a national, pan-India party now, way ahead of the competition, the Congress.
Sample this: Even though the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh may be seeing strong anti-incumbency, in Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the party has got two tall leaders, who also steer the election campaign in the two states.
Elsewhere, say, for instance, in Maharashtra, the party promoted an enterprising MLA from Nagpur, thus giving it the slogan of Narendra (Modi) and Devendra (Fadnavis). Today, the youthful Fadnavis is here for a long haul, admit even his critics.
Many see in Yogi Adityanath, the UP Chief Minister, a long-term future, possibly out of the state as well.
In Haryana, the party made a leader out of M L Khattar, who, critics, alleged, was known only due to his proximity to Modi. Governance may not have been his strong points, but party president Amit Shah has renewed faith in KHattar, as late as last month, in a rally in the state.
Similarly, the party promoted a long-term office bearer Raghubar Das in Jharkhand, who’s is a state leader in his own right now.
Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel have been the faces in Modi’s and Shah’s home state of Gujarat.
Just before Deb in Tripura, the party created another leader (who few had head of) – Jairam Thakur in Himachal Pradesh, after P K Dhumal failed to win a state election.
Many critics question if Modi has failed to create a second-rung leadership in the party. While this may be true to some extent in the central leadership, by creating a bouquet of strong regional parties across states, the BJP, under Modi-Shah, has ensured that the BJP maximizes its reach.
The Congress, with its over-centralised dynastic mechanism, fails this test. If not the BJP, it should take a cue from its own states – of the three states run by the party, Punjab and Karnataka are run by strong leaders – Amarinder Singh and Siddaramaiah.
The BJP, however, has a clear lead, over its competition here.
