Party president Amit Shah drives BJP leaders to work hard for victory in Maharashtra

MUMBAI: The exit polls have put a smile on Madhav Bhandari's face. BJP's affable Maharashtra spokesman looks finally relieved after hectic weeks, which he says drained him physically and emotionally. Long back in 1984, it was the same Bhandari, then just 28, who had drafted the letter confirming the party's alliance with Sena.

"It fell upon me to draft the letter formalising the break of that alliance too. But it was not released," says Bhandari, sitting in the Nariman Point office of BJP, which is preparing for a new era for the party in a state where it has always played the second fiddle.

Bhandari was one of the two Marathi-speakers who were part of the six-member core team handpicked by BJP chief Amit Shah to lead the war of Maharashtra. The other was Vinay Sahasrabuddhe who runs the party's think-tank Public Policy Research Centre.

If BJP manages to match the glorious projections made by the exit polls, the party will have to thank Shah and his Team Six: Bhandari, Sahasrabuddhe, Om Mathur, Sunil Bansal, V Satish, and state party incharge Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

Insiders say the Shah campaign started in July when he asked Bhandari and Satish to travel across Maharashtra and present him a list of local problems and identify probable candidates. "But when the alliance broke we didn't have candidates in 60per cent of the state. It was difficult. But Amitbhai had his homework ready. Not once did he get agitated or apprehensive. He had a plan," a state leader said.

Instantly, Mathur, Rudy, Bansal and others were handed over responsibilities. Mathur is known to have been close to Shah since his days as prabhari in Gujarat, while Bansal was Shah's key executioner of his plan in UP in the Lok Sabha where the party won 73/80 seats.

While Mathur was given the charge of politicking, keeping tabs on development in other parties and also talk to them, Rudy was handed over responsibility of planning and execution that included making arrangements for Modi's travel. Bansal kept a watch on the running of the party organisation while Bhandari handled the media. V Satish, a RSS full-timer and joint secretary in BJP briefed Shah on everyday development in the state.

Sahasrabuddhe recalls that the party trusted its karyakartas more than agencies to come out with Marathi taglines to attract people.

Decision on candidates was, however, entirely made by Shah who is said to have informed Modi about selection of major candidates including Devendra Phadnavis who, according to sources, was endorsed by Modi for his clean image. Union minister Prakash Javadekar was given the charge of finalising print and online ads to take Modi and BJP to every household in Maharashtra.