Amit Shah’s 100 hours of shock and awe tactics against AAP

On Thursday it was Kiran Bedi, the former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi joined the party on Saturday, and former AAP MLA Vinod Kumar Binny was inducted into the party on Sunday. This has been followed with former Union minister under UPA government Krishna Tirath joining the saffron party on Monday.

The fact that BJP’s national president Amit Shah has himself taken the time out to formalise the induction of Bedi, Ilmi and Tirath indicates the BJP leadership’s shock and awe policy to deflate the AAP balloon, which opinion polls suggested was swelling to proportions that can threaten the lotus bloom in the capital.

In between, party MP Udit Raj, who himself was inducted into the BJP just ahead of Lok Sabha elections, organised a Dalit Sammelan at Talkatora Stadium on Friday to woo the support base that is being widely considered to be aligned with AAP.

Shah’s four acts between four days in Delhi indicated his election management style – shock and awe the opponents.

The "shock and awe" is obvious from the reaction of AAP and Congress leaders over these moves in last 100 hours.

AAP leaders, in this context, have realised the import of Kiran Bedi’s induction into the BJP as she has the potential to woo substantial urban voters away from Kejriwal’s AAP to the saffron kitty. No wonder, AAP leaders are refraining from attacking Bedi upfront. Congress leaders were virtually unaware of Tirath’s defection to the opposite camp. Tirath’s defection, in particular, holds significance given the fact that she was the tallest Dalit face of the party in the capital.

Though local leaders are holding grudges against these moves, the BJP campaign managers are happy over these developments underlining the importance of Shah’s tactics in galvanising party support base. “Till Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand elections, Shah was busy and soon after he had organisational meetings across the country for the party’s membership drive. The Delhi BJP unit was lax during this period. They don’t have the experience of winning the elections through Chhapemari (perception raids),” underlined a senior BJP functionary involved in election management in Delhi.