New Delhi: The BJP has been cracking the whip on its workers and leaders ever since a 5-6 percent drop in voting percentages in the first two phases of the Lok Sabha elections. From chief ministers making 6 am wake-up calls to MLAs on polling days, to dedicated call centres rallying women voters, and workers visiting the homes of swing voters, damage control operations have been on full throttle, particularly in BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, party sources said.
A focal point of these efforts has been holding MLAs and ministers accountable. For instance, a week before the third phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh, Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with state leaders on 25 April, warning ministers that they would lose their portfolios after the election if the voting percentage remained low in their respective districts. He also attributed the low voting percentage to the complacency of the cadres and the MLAs in the state, according to party sources.
Shortly after this meeting, state president VD Sharma and Chief Minister Mohan Yadav fine-tuned strategies to enhance voter turnout. Every BJP MLA and leader was tasked with calling booth workers on polling day between 5 and 6 in the morning to ensure that assigned voters cast their ballots before 10 am. Party sources added that BD Sharma himself called at least 10 MLAs to wake them up and urge them to canvass for higher turnout. Other leaders followed suit, reaching out to the lower rungs of booth committees and panna pramukhs (voter page in-charges) to mobilise voters.
The results were seen in the third phase of voting on 7 May, where the average polling in nine seats of Madhya Pradesh was 66.05 percent, similar to 2019’s 66.08 percent, marking a 6 percent improvement from the first and second phases.
Similar strategies were followed for the fourth and final phase of voting for eight Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh on 13 May, with a respectable 71.72 percent polling recorded.
Madhya Pradesh BJP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal told ThePrint that the party’s strategies to improve turnout had paid off, with the overall gap in the turnout closing by the end of phase 4.
“After the first and second phases, further fine-tuning was conducted at the organisational level, particularly at the booth level. We secured 65 percent of booths in 2019 and 61 percent in the assembly elections. Our primary focus was on winning our booths. In the last ten days, we intensified our efforts in booth-level micro-management, which was reflected in the polling results.”
A BJP bastion, MP is a high-priority state for the party, which formed government again in December after winning 163 assembly seats out of the state’s 230. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 28 out of 29 seats in MP.
The BJP has also stepped up its game to keep voter turnout high in other Hindi heartland states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with measures such as organising booth committee meetings, reaching out to undecided voters, and implementing targeted strategies to energise core supporters.
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Women call centres, booth ‘rewards’
In addition to holding ministers, MLAs, and booth workers accountable, the BJP experimented with dedicated call centres to boost voter turnout, especially among women.
In Madhya Pradesh, where former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s flagship Ladli Behna financial women’s assistance scheme proved to be a vote-puller in the 2023 assembly elections, the party was alarmed by the low turnout of beneficiaries during the first two phases of Lok Sabha polling.
“The central leadership observed a lower turnout among women beneficiaries of the scheme during the first two phases of polling compared to the assembly elections, and they decided to shake up the state leadership to enhance women’s voting participation,” said a senior BJP leader from MP. “Call centres were started to target women voters. They reached out to beneficiaries to remind them to vote on polling days.”
Tailor-made booth-level interventions were another important step.
As part of its strategies, the BJP classifies booths into different groups—A, B, C, and D. The A category comprises booths where the BJP consistently secures victory. In B category booths, the BJP and opposition have contested victories. C and D categories represent challenging booths for the BJP, typically weak booths or those dominated by minority communities.
“There are 22,000 A category booths, 37,000 B category booths, and 7,000 C category booths in MP,” said the senior BJP leader. “The party’s focus was mostly on B and C category booths, where the competition between the Congress and BJP is more. In these booths, our aim was to ensure a lead of 10 percent in votes.”
At the end of the fourth phase of polling on 13 May, state cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya praised the efforts of booth workers.
“The BJP’s strength lies in its hard-working workers. Today, amidst the voting in Indore, workers stood firm at the polling booths,” he tweeted.
Missions UP & Bihar
Two days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nomination filing from Varanasi on 14 May, Amit Shah convened a meeting of party leaders and workers from the constituency to bolster the voting percentage and increase the victory margin.
According to Varanasi BJP sources who attended the 11 May meeting, Shah promised to “promote” booth workers to leadership roles based on the votes the party receives and the polling percentage of their booths, other than the feedback of the district president and concerned MLA.
While giving tips to party workers to enhance polling in the PM’s constituency, Shah advised booth workers to prioritise polling in A and B booths before 10 am, instructing every panna pramukh to keep the voters’ page handy in their pocket.
After ensuring polling at A and B category booths, party workers and booth committee members were directed to focus on C and D category booths and mark every voter in their chart, regardless of whether they had voted or not.
In Uttar Pradesh, alongside organising booth committee meetings for voter turnout, the party deployed senior leaders to reach out to undecided voters with the tagline “jaha kam wahan hum” (We are there when no one else is) to influence them to vote for BJP.
“After the first two phases of polling, the party fine-tuned its strategy to increase voter participation by establishing call centres to contact voters,” said a senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh.
Responsibilities were divided among panna pramukhs, with one booth leader tasked with overseeing ten voters, similar to Gujarat’s page committee model, he added. “They were instructed to contact voters twice before polling. Monitoring was strengthened at every level, from the ‘sakti kendra’ to the ‘mandal’ level, and every senior leader had to call booth-level workers on polling days.”
Another senior BJP leader noted that the party received 70 percent of its votes from core supporter, with the remainder coming from non-core voters.
“After the Prime Minister raised the issue of Congress’ Muslim appeasement politics and the mangalsutra matter, BJP’s core voters became energised. Many had become complacent because they believed that Modi would come for a third term,” he said.
A senior party leader from Bihar told ThePrint that highlighting schemes and boosting access to them was a major part of the voter outreach strategy.
“We’ve been enrolling senior citizens for the extended Ayushman scheme. The Prime Minister’s promise of giving cash-free treatment for Rs 5 lakh for seniors in the manifesto spurred us to make enrollment forms available in senior citizens groups to help enhance turnout,” he said.
The Bihar leader added that the BJP also organised youth and women’s wing conferences to energise cadres and booth organising committees had been assured they’d be “rewarded” if their performance met or exceeded targets.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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