The David and Goliath story which is being played out in Delhi between the BJP and AAP, will have an unplanned stage show in Goa of all places on August 20 when both Amit Shah and Arvind Kejriwal will be in Goa. While their paths may not be crossed, though we can never be sure in Goa, their presence on the same day will reopen the debate on the who gets to be the top draw as the main challenge to the ruling party in 2017. While the Congress has claimed this space on the strength of history, the Aam Admi Party is using its street meetings and Goa dialogues to work itself into this space not as the third force but a principal challenger. It is now left entirely up to the Congress to reclaim this space though its grass-root mobilization.
While the visit of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his third in four months is part of a declared strategy, the BJP President Amit Shah’s engagement with booth level workers in Goa, is a clear signal of a paradigm shift in the central BJP’s internal grading of the Goa elections. Notwithstanding the Congress’ own game plan and its self belief that it is the principal opposition party, it is only the BJP which knows and understands the “damage” hurricane AAP can cause. Amit Shah’s visit is not too publicly attack and cut to size the Delhi Chief Minister, but to reach out to the very same grass-root worker constituency, which is the tried and tested formula. The BJP’s central leadership has finally looked at a state they would hitherto “pass” when it came to national calculations and it decided on letting its party commander in Chief lead the way in. But it has its work clearly cut out.
According to inputs from villages , there are three kinds of mini people constituencies who are participating in the Goa Dialogues of the Aam Admi Party. The first is a lot which has not voted in the past inspite of being eligible to. These are the politically disillusioned, but not disinterested in the future of Goa. The second are those from families which have been Congress voters, many of whom did the shift to the BJP in 2012 and state they regretted it. The third are the fully politically inclined who have not made up their minds about which way they will go, but find the dialogues in villages interesting.
The BJP is keeping a very close track of each of these meetings, and especially in South Goa. Amit Shah’s visit is intended to shift the goal post from its government to the people to see if a fresh start at reconnecting could be attempted. Thus, while it attacks AAP in a manner seldom seen in political India, it hopes to follow some of AAP’s tried and tested methods and even lift policy and scheme ideas. For instance the Goa Government’s scheme of completely revamp Aanganwadi’s has been influenced a bit from this.
While the fight between the BJP and AAP is very bitter in Delhi, its wait and watch in Goa. But Amit Shah would rather wait for this to play out while mobilizing its booth level workers at the lowest rung of the party hierarchy to take charge.
