BJP toils hard to woo voters but its vision is long-term

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP is working to a long-term strategy in Kerala and is looking well beyond harvesting some seats from the polls.
The bigger gameplan is to tighten bonds with alliance partner, the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS). This goes well with the state's fondness for coalition politics.

In over 100 constituencies, the saffron party is following the Bihar strategy of identifying voters who might be favourably disposed towards it, if approached sensibly. “We are trying to identify fence-sitters, or are undecided, willing to support us if convinced. Our booth-level work has depth compared to UDF and LDF ,“ says BJP state secretary V V Rajesh, who's also contesting.

Indeed, party teams work ing at the booth level have spared no effort to research voters at the booth level. “Depending on our information on voters' political preferences and profile, party workers approach them differently . It is a personalised campaign,“ Rajesh says.

The central leadership clearly wants to pitch the NDA as the third alternative in Kerala, a bi-polar state.This is evident from the importance BDJS leaders get from both BJP chief Amit Shah and PM Narendra Modi.

“The BJP leadership feels that gain ing political traction in Kerala is impossible without having a powerful community organisation on its side. Here the Ezhava body, Sree Naryana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) and its political arm BDJS come into play . They are working with BJP . The idea is it to use this association to woo other major organisations in future.

“The BJP indeed has an eye on the future,'' says a prominent non-BJP functionary in the NDA. As a boost to BDJS leaders, PM Modi is likely to attend some of its campaign rallies. There are clear signals that Shah wants the BJP-BDJS alliance to live beyond the polls On Tuesday , BJP and BJDS functionaries from Kerala met Shah in New Delhi. “At the D meeting the need to work together was emphasised,'' a sen ior BJP man who was part of the delegation says.

While wooing floating voters, BJP workers are also approaching hard core supporters of rival camps . “Who knows where support comes from,“ says former BJP state chief V Muraleedharan .