BJP poll strategy: Vajpayee's vision, Modi's drumbeat

The man who dominated the minds of the big speakers at the BJP's two-day national council here over the weekend was the ailing and absent former prime minister Atal Bhari Vajpayee. Rajnath Singh in his presidential address, Prakash Javdekar who moved the economic resolution, Murli Manohar Joshi and Arun Jaitley who spoke on the resolution, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Narendra Modi, LK Advani harked back to the achievements of Vajpayee's BJP-led NDA government from 1998 to 2004.

Whether it was the economic growth figures, impetus to infrastructure, assertion of Indian presence through the May, 1998 nuclear tests or the management of an unwieldy political alliance, there was a note of nostalgia. Of course, the BJP cannot but harp on what it did during those years because that was the only time the party was in power at the centre.

Javdekar made mincemeat of the UPA1 and UPA2' economic performance compared to that of the NDA's six years in office, and Jaitley pointed out how infrastructure projects were given a fillip under Vajpayee.

It was indeed a touching tribute to Vajpayee as a tall leader who continues to charm the party leaders and workers nine years after he demitted office. The party has not found another Vajpayee-like leader, and those who are aspiring to lead the party are aware that they will have to borrow quite a few ideas from the Vajpayee book of success. There was a time when hard-headed BJP hawks used to frown upon Vajpayee as a man of fluff and nothing else. Today the hawks seem to be missing the man with the feather touch.

There was of course the irony which the BJP leaders did not want to note: Despite the fine achievements of the six years, the NDA lost in the 2004 polls and again in 2009. The 2004 debacle shocked the BJP leaders out of their wits and they could not bring themselves to accept the verdict. And it looked as though the stupor of defeat paralysed the party in the 2009 election as well. Perhaps the party strategists will have to understand the reasons for the 2004 and 2009 defeats if they want to make headway in 2014.

A party MP said that it was not necessary to look back to the NDA period and that the party has success models in the BJP-ruled states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. There was however no denying the fact the unmistakable sentimental longing for the short-lived glory of prime minister Vajpayee's days.

Modi has emerged as the man who will lead the battle because of his unceasing firepower directed against the Congress and all it does and does not do. Modi is the man who will hit hard at the Congress and keep its (Congress') leaders fuming, and in doing so unsettle their plans in fighting the elections. Modi is expected to keep the BJP workers enthused with his anti-Congress pyrotechnics, which is so necessary to win the poll battle.

The BJP seems keen to combine is the pleasing image of a successful Vajpayee with that of the fire-spewing Modi as the poll strategy for 2014. This will not be necessary to win the assembly elections in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Jharkhand because these will be fought on the performance of the respective state governments. The Vajpayee-Modi strategic mode is required only for the 2014 Lok Sabha poll. The BJP is also aware that only one of the two will be sufficient to win the national election.

There are signs now that the BJP has recovered from the blues of the defeat in 2004 and it is able to look back with pride at what it has been able to achieve during the six years of NDA in power. The BJP leaders at the council meeting took pains to explain that the next government will be a BJP-led alliance. Even Modi is not promising that the BJP will ride back to power all on its own. The party is betting on the Vajpayee spirit of taking allies along.