Team Shah micro-managed win, arrogance did Congress in: Mohan Lal Badoli
Crediting the BJP’s third successive win in Haryana to micro-management strategy executed by chief poll strategist and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, along with his team of trusted lieutenants, BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli today asserted that the Congress lost due to the arrogance of its senior leaders.
“While BJP’s well-oiled organisational machinery, anchored by its CM face Nayab Singh Saini, was able to win people’s trust, Congress’ false narrative on a variety of issues, including reservation, coupled with arrogance of its senior leaders, worked in the saffron party’s favour, giving it a historic hat-trick,” Badoli said during an exclusive interview with The Tribune for its digital show #DecodeHaryana.
In the run-up to the Assembly poll, the Congress was at its wits’ end to decode BJP’s political arithmetic… the arrogance of its leaders proved the Congress’ Achilles’ heel.’ — Mohan Lal Badoli, BJP state chief
The Congress was so arrogant that it not only “insulted” its own senior leaders but also the ‘self-respecting’ people of Haryana through irrational statements of its candidates, Badoli alleged, adding that the Congress even dumped its INDIA bloc partners, such as the AAP. “In the run-up to the Assembly poll, the Congress was at its wits’ end to decode BJP’s political arithmetic… the arrogance of its leaders proved the Congress’ Achilles’ heel,” he claimed.
Terming the Jat-non Jat narrative as Congress creation, Badoli said Jats and farmers, who come from all sections of society, were also the party’s vote bank. “We were able to increase our vote share by 2-3% while retaining our traditional vote bank, which helped us get a clear majority,” he stated.
On the reported “sidelining” of former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar by the BJP during the campaign, apparently to buck anti-incumbency, Badoli claimed that though the poll strategy was executed under Amit Shah’s stewardship, Khattar was one of the key planners of the party.
Evading a direct reply to the question on the election of the leader of the legislature party, who would head the Haryana Government, he said though the party had declared Saini as the CM face before the elections, certain “constitutional formalities” were yet be completed by the BJP’s 48 elected legislators.
He claimed that the welfare initiatives of the double-engine government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre and caretaker Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini in the state helped the party turn the tide against the Congress.