Our strategy worked: Harsh Vardhan

Basking in the glory of the victory of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the MCD elections, state party President Harsh Vardhan is on a political high. The soft spoken ENT speciaist doctor not only planned the strategy of the party but also executed it to bring back the party to reckoning. His next target now is the Assembly election due late next year. In an interview to Amitabh Shukla, he shares the formula which brought success to the party.

Q: What is the secret for the success of the party?

A: I won't go into details on issues like sealings, demolitions, half baked Master Plan, Inflation and price rise. These contributed to the disenchantment of the voters with the Congress. We started the campaign much before the dates for the polls were announced. The key element was door to door campaign and to convince the voters that we meant change in the functioning of the civic body.

Q: Ticket distribution was a key element. How did the party keep a balance?

A : We gave tickets to all sections of society - doctors, engineers, professionals, housewives, business people, traders, youth, people hailing from poorvanchal, Uttarakhand to reach out to all sections of the party. We realised the changing demographic profile of the city and included a cross section of the society in our list.

Q: The campaign strategy in which almost all top leaders of the party participated seemed to have worked.

A: Yes the campaign began with Advani ji addressing the workers. Our President Rajnath Singh was with us throughout. ThenShatrughan Sinha campaigned intensively. Guidance from leaders like V.K. Malhotra, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and others was of tremendous help. Then Navjot Sidhu came. It was a teamwork.

Q: How effective were the advertisements in print, radio and TV?

A: Very effective. We took the message across that the Congress was insensitive to the plight of the people. The party had failed to live up to the expectations and we exposed it through our intensive media campaign.

Q: Did you take professional help from management professionals in the campaign?

A: Yes, for the first time management professionals also helped us out in the entire exercise. But it was not a paid service as I knew these professionals since a long time when I had planned the pulse-polio campaign as a Health Minister in the Delhi government. (April 8, 2007)