But the organisational network created by the grand old party during the freedom struggle was so robust that it continues to sustain it even now. Yet, the corrosion in its organisational structure over the past decades is evident and has enfeebled its ability to win elections. Perhaps the party’s increasing
on charm and charisma of individual leaders and families to it through is proving to be its nemesis.
The strategic mistakes of the Congress proved to be a lesson for the BJP and its most formidable organisation man, Narendra Modi. In contrast to the static political ennui in which the Congress finds itself today, the BJP not only mobilises but seeks to consistently innovate itself. Soon after shifting from the RSS to the party in the late 1980s, Modi invented new techniques of organisation-building and introduced them in the BJP’s organisational expansion.
I have come across numerous new instances of mobilisation, aggregation, adaptation and innovation that went into the making of what the BJP is today — the world’s biggest political party. Those in the media who were on the BJP beat in the nineties would recall that in the successive national executive meetings, the party’s tallest leaders of the time — Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani –used to lament the geographic limitations. The party was non-existent across the Vindhyas (the south), the east (except in some pockets in Bihar) and the north-east. How to break this barrier was a puzzle.
Only a decade back, it was unthinkable that the BJP would be a serious contender in Assam and other north-eastern states. Today, it is in pole position in the region. How did this change come about? Herein lies Modi’s organisational genius in turning around the party and expanding it beyond its traditional pocket burrows through his unconventional techniques which, though consistent with the party’s ideological compass, are transformational if not outright revolutionary. The earlier generation of BJP leadership, being a stickler for established traditions, might have been hesitant initially but embraced the new ways after realising the benefits they accrued.
Since its inception in 1951, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS, the BJP’s precursor) had applied the ‘sangthanist’ model of expansion in which a substantial chunk of the party’s cadres used to get roped in from the RSS. As this method of party-building was restrictive in nature, the BJS expanded by including ‘notables’, such as descendants of royal families, into the party fold. This strategy, called “notablisation”, was invented by the Congress. These two strategies were at play in the expansion of the BJS and later the BJP.
But Modi introduced another innovative method of expansion in which he co-opted individual leaders, irrespective of their ideologies, who by the dint of their work earned respect among the people. He successfully put this method into practice in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
It was indeed a strange coincidence that Modi arrived on the political scene in 1986 exactly when the Congress under prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was showing signs of decline. In Gujarat, Congress stalwarts like Madhavsinh Solanki were experimenting with the idea of forging a social coalition of KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim). The formula had reaped great political dividends for the Congress initially, but was then alienating the upper castes and the urban middle class from the party. The other side of the KHAM politics was partly to be blamed when Ahmedabad witnessed unprecedented communal riots in 1985. It was against this backdrop that Modi as the party’s state general secretary (organisation) launched his bold experiments in party-building.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) polls of 1987 were the first crucible of his experimentation. He chose respectable professionals — doctors, lawyers, teachers — as candidates representing the middle class. He courted diverse social groups like non-Gujarati migrant workers. Then there were firebrand leaders of non-Congress parties such as Praja Socialist Party (PSP) — for example, Ashok Bhatt, who were inducted into the party. With matching innovations in the election campaign, the BJP staged a coup in what was described as an impregnable Congress bastion. After winning power in the AMC, Modi handed out an elaborate plan to the party’s councillors to transform the AMC into a model of urban governance. The councillors were asked to go to the people and align themselves with projects that the AMC had initiated.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the AMC model practically incubated the future political governance of the state and eventually of the country. In my book, I have not only explored the skills that Modi applied to build his party but also to train the cadre. In those days, he would often tell his party colleagues, “Training is a science.” His emphasis on training the cadre for future politics is unique as it orients them to the party’s objectives. There is no doubt that the BJP can rightly boast of having a huge army of trained cadre which is politically aware and ready to align with the government programmes to achieve the BJP’s political goals.
Modi has created a robust organisation which is unlikely to wither away for decades. What is the secret of this success? The usual answers — ideology, charismatic leadership — fail to explain why the same factors did not click earlier.
