New Delhi/Mumbai: On 23 November, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) set a new record, registering its best-ever tally in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly and the best-ever strike rate, winning 132 of the 148 seats it had contested.
While there are many claimants in the BJP as also the ruling Mahayuti for the victory, one leader, “a silent worker”, who is being talked about in BJP circles is Union Minister Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav.
Almost 5 months before the Maharashtra assembly elections, the BJP had made Yadav, who hails from Rajasthan, the state election in-charge. Soon after, he virtually shifted his base to Mumbai and rented a flat.
“Maharashtra is a difficult state, made more difficult due to the alliances, as everyone had to be taken on board. To begin with, Yadavji tried to get everyone on the same page. He held meetings with disgruntled sections within the party,” a senior BJP functionary told ThePrint.
But it was an uphill task, explained the leader, as Yadav had to keep the caste equations in mind as he held meetings with small caste groups too.
“The BJP was already struggling with the challenge posed by the movement for Maratha reservation under the leadership of Manoj Jarange-Patil. So the matter had to be dealt with delicately,” he added.
Explaining the strategy for Maharashtra which resulted in the BJP improving its tally, a state functionary said marathon meetings used to take place between Yadav, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state election co-in-charge Ashwini Vaishnaw and state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule on a regular basis.
Incidentally, Yadav and Vaishnav had also steered the party to a spectacular victory in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh assembly election, playing the same roles as in-charge and co-in-charge.
“Yadavji used to hold online meetings of assembly constituencies and booth in-charges at least twice daily. From October, separate meetings were held with other parties of Mahayuti too, to ensure greater cohesion as far as the poll campaign was concerned,” the Maharashtra functionary added.
The Mahayuti includes the BJP, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
A team of 49 leaders from the Maratha community, 122 from the OBC groups, 124 from the SC community and 26 from the ST community was also formed to ensure better coordination, according to the functionary.
Known to be an early riser, Yadav used to start his day at 7 am with “no clarity on what time the day would end”.
“Sometimes meetings would go on till 3-4 am…and changes could not be made to pre-planned meetings so at times he would end up sleeping for three hours. But then this is the culture of the BJP. Right from Fadnavis, Vaishnawji and other leaders were also following a similar schedule,” said the state functionary.
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‘He deputed the right people’
Manisha Chaudhary, a three-time BJP MLA, said Yadav held multiple meetings of booth-level workers, strategising how to convert B category booths into A category ones.
Parties usually sort seats and booths that always vote for them in the ‘A category’, and those that usually don’t but can be won over with some effort in the ‘B category’.
“Bhupender Yadavji also advised us on how to keep our key voters in the constituency engaged. He deputed the right people within the party to come and engage with them,” said Chaudhary, who won Mumbai’s Dahisar assembly seat for the third consecutive term this election.
For example, she said, there’s a large Patel community in her constituency for which Yadav deputed Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel to come to Mumbai and address the voters. Patel also addressed members of the diamond industry and the general jewellery industry in Mumbai, she added.
“Jagdish Vishwakarma from the Gujarat cabinet and Anand MP Mitesh Patel also addressed different voter groups from the Gujarati community in the constituency. They spoke about how a stable government made Gujarat’s development possible, and how Maharashtra can be on the same track if the Mahayuti government of 2.5 years gets to continue its work,” she told ThePrint.
A senior BJP leader from the Marathwada region, who wished to not be named, said that beyond Mumbai, Yadav did not spend too much time in person but mostly took Zoom meetings.
“Bhupender Yadav held meetings of micro OBC groups in Mumbai. He came to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) only once in November for two hours. He didn’t personally interact with the party workers but met key committed leaders here. He also met a few local leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) here,” he said.
“Largely, our interaction with Bhupender Yadav was on Zoom meetings where he would take details of our booth strengthening measures,” the leader added.
How Marathwada, Dalits & OBCS were won
Marathwada was a tricky region as the BJP had suffered a drubbing here in the Lok Sabha election due to the Maratha quota protests.
In this election, the region overwhelmingly voted in the Mahayuti’s favour. The local BJP leader, however, mainly credits the Maharashtra BJP leadership for being able to turn the tide in the party’s favour—consolidating OBC votes to counter the Marathas and increasing the voter turnout among Hindus to battle the AIMIM factor in Marathwada.
One of the major factors behind the BJP’s tally coming down in the Lok Sabha poll was the issue of reservation and “changing” the Constitution raised by the INDIA alliance, especially Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. To counter this, the party made a massive outreach to Dalits and OBCs all over Maharashtra since July.
Yadav, as ThePrint reported earlier, held numerous one-on-one meetings with key representatives from the Mahars, Matangs, and other groups among the 57 castes and sub-castes within the SC category. He also made a similar outreach to the OBCs.
To reach out to the Dalit community, the BJP held a series of rallies and yatras across the state. Former law minister Kiren Rijiju, a Buddhist, also spent several days in the state meeting Dalit Buddhists. As Yadav would tell his party colleagues, “after Ambedkar, Rijiju was only the second Buddhist to become the country’s law minister.”
As far as candidate selection is concerned, a second BJP functionary said Yadav held meetings with every district’s core committee to get their feedback.
Maharashtra not the first feat
Maharashtra was not the first “challenging” assignment of Yadav, who is considered a close aide of Union home minister Amit Shah. Last year, he was given charge of Madhya Pradesh due for the state polls.
“Months before the elections, Madhya Pradesh was a divided house. There were too many camps and Yadavji ensured everyone came together and was on the same page, keeping their personal differences aside,” said the Maharashtra functionary. The BJP won the polls handsomely.
Yadav was also given the charge of Bihar in 2020, where the BJP managed to win 74 of 243 seats, while CM Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) was restricted to 43 seats, down from 71 in 2015.
In 2020, the BJP had entrusted Yadav with the responsibility of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, in which the BJP secured 48 seats while AIMIM and Congress bagged 44 and 2 seats, respectively.
“Many are talking about Bhupender Yadav now, but he has always silently done his work. Whether it is Bihar, Madhya Pradesh or even the Hyderabad municipal elections. He believes in working hard and delivering,” said the state functionary.
Yadav, who represents Alwar constituency in the Lok Sabha, also gave the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Azerbaijan a miss owing to the “high-stakes” Maharashtra battle.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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