Despite the high octane election campaign in Gujarat, the actual result will favour the side which is able to pull voters to the polling booths. The BJP has been feeling the pressure from emerging caste leaders and the resentment owing to GST, but it scores over the Congress when we take into account the presence of BJP foot soldiers on the ground manning the booths.
The first phase of the polling will be on December 9.
BJP chief Amit Shah's poll machinery comprising dedicated workers will be tested. He had put in place a huge army of booth level workers with several layers of monitoring like page incharge, booth incharge, booth committee, shakti kendras.
Both Modi and Shah apart from addressing public rallies have been regularly interacting and engaging with the booth workers who have the responsibility of getting the votes casted.
In just a week before the polling, Modi had addressed two meetings of the party workers. First he addressed over 7,000 women workers through his Namo App and then over 8,000 workers belonging to the dalits and tribal communities. “We discussed issues like boosting handicrafts in Kutch, boosting voter turnout and the growth trajectory of Gujarat over the last two decades,” Modi said after the interaction with women workers.
The aim was to enthuse these people so that they not only come out of their homes to vote but also bring their other community members.
“The strategy is clear. Apart from the rallies by all the big leaders, its the actual one to one contact that is being held at the last moment. This will help tide over any resentment if the people have,” a party strategist said.
BJP had also set up huge network of Whatsapp groups through which it was interacting with the people at the ground level. “There are over 42,000 Whatsapp groups right up to the booth level to engage with the people. We keep on sending messages, videos and creative content to keep them aligned,” a BJP leader said.
The Congress on their side also claimed to have set up a team of dedicated workers at the booth level. But the party leaders accept that their system is not as robust as the BJP but they hope that the people's resentment against the BJP government will prompt them to come out and vote for Congress.
