Is Amit Shah the BJP president undoing the good work of Amit Shah the master strategist? Why has the slide in BJP's fortune coincided with the ascent of Shah as the head of the party? Ideally, not too much should be read into the results of the recently held by-polls, however, the perceptible swing in the public mood away from the party should be food for thought for its think-tank. If the BJP fails to be less spectacular in its victory in the upcoming assembly elections, it may bruise his reputation as a sound planner.
Narendra Modi's transition from the chief minister of Gujarat to the prime minister of the nation has been fairly smooth, but Shah seems to be faltering a bit after pulling off the UP miracle in May. The game changer in UP is now being seen as a game breaker. Modi has retained his mojo in his new incarnation. The same can't be said of Shah. In Bihar, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Karnataka, the BJP has not only performed poorly but also antagonised traditional allies and ceded ground to Congress and its allies.
Shah's unseemly haste to bring out the dagger from behind the cloak can largely be blamed for the party's debacle in Uttar Pradesh. It's possible while betting on Shah the RSS either grossly overestimated his guile or underestimated the might of various groups in Uttar Pradesh. The party seems to have forgotten that the voter doesn't take the RSS to be the sole stakeholder in BJP's progress.
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