From Panchayat to Parliament: the BJP’s mantra for winning

BJP’s election machinery has been preparing not only for the upcoming assembly polls but is as focused on the panchayat elections in West Bengal.

In April 2017, three years after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the general election with a thumping majority and had its chief ministers in 13 states, the then party president Amit Shah told the cadre that the party must win “from Panchayat to Parliament”. The speech delivered at the party’s national executive in Bhubaneswar laid the ground for the upcoming electoral battles, which Shah said, must herald “the BJP’s golden era.”

The BJP’s election machinery has been preparing not only for the upcoming assembly polls in five states and next year’s general election, but is as focused on the panchayat elections in West Bengal, which witnessed widespread violence. (ANI)

In recent weeks, the BJP’s election machinery has been preparing not only for the upcoming assembly polls in five states and next year’s general election, but is as focused on the panchayat elections in West Bengal. The party has 18 lawmakers and 70 legislators in the state ruled by the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

This is not the first time that the BJP is contesting the Panchayat elections in West Bengal, but its preparation for the July 4 polls is shriller and sharper, said a party functionary privy to the details.

Recalling Shah’s 2017 address, the functionary said the message about Panchayat polls was a revelation to many who had come to believe that a “top-down” approach in politics would cement the party’s position and establish its hegemony as a behemoth.

“Many people were of the view that with the party in power at the Centre and in several states, Panchayat and urban local body elections were not a challenge and would be a cakewalk,” the functionary said speaking on condition of anonymity .

To be sure, panchayat elections are not fought on a party symbol, but the BJP’s unabashed drive to establish itself at the grassroots has resulted in the party not shying away from announcing support for candidates contesting panchayat polls wherever these are held. It is now common for all parties to announce candidates backed by them.

“In many villages, where castes and clans rule, and people are accustomed to being told (whom to vote for), the BJP set about to churn things. Of course, there was resistance and even violence, but we carried on,” the functionary said.

The momentum that the BJP’s big win in 2014 created for the party’s expansion was good enough to enthuse people to sign up as party cadre, and in many states, the membership drive threw up staggering numbers. Yet, it was not so easy to get the candidates to sign up for contests in many states such as West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Jammu and Kashmir and in nearly all of the Southern States, said another party functionary.

Another reason for this was the party’s own lackadaisical attitude towards Panchayat and urban local body polls.

“In UP, when the process of preparation for the 2017 assembly election began, getting our candidates to contest for the Panchayat elections was not an easy task. National general secretary, Sunil Bansal who was the in-charge of the state had a huge challenge to surmount when he set out to convince people to contest,” said the second functionary, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

The BJP won 312 of the 403 seats in the assembly elections, the second functionary said, crediting the “groundwork it put in for the local body polls.”

The party now considers Panchayat polls critical to disseminate its ideology in the rural areas where support is lukewarm and patchy in some areas. Just as senior leaders, including Union and state ministers and office bearers, are deputed to oversee elections in states and for the Lok Sabha, similar preparations are now made for the Panchayat polls.

“The setting up of high-level committees in each region of the state, monitored by state level functionaries such as the sangathan mantris (general secretary organisation) or national general secretaries is now commonplace for Panchayat polls too,” the second functionary said.

Political commentator, Prof. A K Jha said the BJP sees the panchayat elections as a means for eliciting support from the electorate for the bigger electoral battles.

“To the best of my understanding, local bodies like panchayats are where people at the ground level can determine the course of elections both in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Functionaries at the panchayat level are in a position to reward and distribute various things to people residing in villages and talukas, etc. Also, panchayat functionaries are mostly in direct day-to-day contact with these people,” he said.

Admitting that the panchayat elections are fought with an eye on the bigger prize, the first functionary quoted above said the BJP has been pursuing these electoral contests despite the risks to the life and property of candidates. “...As is being done in Bengal where political vendetta and violence are unprecedented,” the functionary said.

In the run-up to the panchayat polls in West Bengal, the headlines have been dominated by incidents of political violence and the BJP accusing the TMC of perpetrating attacks against its candidates and party supporters. The BJP, which has filed several complaints with the state election commission accused the TMC of attempting to stall its candidates from filing nominations. Political workers from across parties including the TMC, the BJP, the Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Indian Secular Front have died in pre-poll violence this month alone.

“In 2018, the TMC won as many as 20,000 of the 78,400 panchayat seats uncontested. We made a beginning then and came second. The result was that the party went on to win 77 (seven MLAs later resigned from the BJP) assembly seats in the 2021 polls. The party’s growth and progress has unsettled the TMC and that is why there is a visible increase in violence against the candidates wanting to contest Panchayat polls,” said a third BJP leader from West Bengal.

Professor of political science at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Ajay Gudavarthi said the BJP’s zeal for contesting Panchayat elections has a flip side too.

“The BJP has developed an instinct where every election is seen as a referendum. From panchayat to general election, it contests with the same vigour. The positive thing is it is taking democratic mandate seriously with its ear to the ground. The downside is that BJP contests to win at all costs and in this, it might end up undermining the very democratic spirit elections are about,” he said.