Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Jan 24: Amit Shah who was elected BJP national president for second term today took over as National President of Party in August 2014. In this short tenure of less than 18 months, Mr Shah has not only strengthened the party but also worked tirelessly to make BJP the world’s largest political party in terms of active membership. It is the outcome of Shah’s dynamic leadership, relentless efforts and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity that BJP’s membership rose from mere 3 crore to more than 11 crore members.
Besides strengthening the party and taking it to every nook and corner of the country, Mr Shah gave a new identity to the BJP on nation’s political platform. Under Shah’s guidance and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision, the hitherto Hindi heartland party has expanded its footprint and today holds sway practically across the nation.
After Shah took over as President, the BJP has fought Assembly elections in six states and successfully formed government in four of them. It must be pointed out that the BJP did not have a government in any of these six states. The party separated from Shiv Sena for the first time in Maharashtra, fought Assembly elections on its own and succeeded in forming the government with a BJP CM. Similarly, the BJP formed a majority government in Jharkhand and brought an end to 10 years of political instability that had hurt development of the state. The party, which had failed to cross double digits in Haryana, won majority on its own and formed its first government in the State. The BJP registered its best electoral performance in Jammu & Kashmir and forged a post poll alliance with PDP to form the government. The BJP also got the post of Deputy CM in the State. The party may not have won in Delhi and Bihar but it retained its vote share in the capital city and significantly increased the same in Bihar.
It is a combination of Shah’s hard work and critical steps taken under directions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that BJP has registered sizeable
gains and covered considerable ground in this period. These achievements are a result of sharp focus, loads of energy and unending commitment. In the last 18 months, Mr Shah has travelled an average of more than 495 km every single day and covered 2,65,600 km across the length and breadth of the country.
As part of his efforts to strengthen the party’s core structure, Mr Shah has constantly given top most priority to meetings, interactions and discussions with party workers, leaders and supporters. To ensure discipline and simplicity among the party’s rank and file, Mr Shah has led by example and has avoided, to the extent possible, use of private air craft for his travel. He also encouraged central party leadership, travelling to other towns and cities, to stay overnight and establish direct contact and rapport with workers and supporters.
As part of his outreach programme, Mr Shah has toured various states 142 times and addressed 176 rallies. After taking charge in August 2014, Mr Shah immediately got down to the task of establishing contact with party leaders and workers. The first and third Mondays of the month were designated for his Jan-Samwad where both workers and leaders could meet him without prior appointment.
He also started direct contact with party leaders at district level to listen to their issues, boost their morale and solve their problems. In the last 18 months, Mr Shah participated in over 16 such public interactions where he met more than 6,000 people.
These meetings were also held when he visited various states in the country and special attention has been given to the North East states. While visiting various states, two hours were set aside for meeting those workers, who could not meet the Party President in Delhi.
Under Mr Shah’s tenure, training camps were held for workers the first time on a grand scale at national, state, district and block levels. These camps have
played an important role in expanding and strengthening the party. Earlier, only 3,500 workers on an average participated in such training camps annually. Thanks to Shah’s perseverance, more than 7,25,000 workers joined these camps in 2015.
In order to establish seamless connect between party and government, Shah remained in constant touch with ministers and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at regular intervals and made relentless efforts to connect government’s programmes and policies with hopes and aspirations of the general public.
As part of the programme to expand party’s outreach, Shah constituted 19 departments and launched 10 projects. A detailed schedule for these departments was drawn so that these departments drive party’s ideology and goals.
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