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BJP’s silent narrative committee, led by Bansuri Swaraj, was key in BJP’s Delhi win against AAP, highlighting opposition failures and leveraging Modi’s influence effectively.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi being garlanded by BJP MPs Manoj Tiwari, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Bansuri Swaraj during celebrations at the BJP HQ after the party won the Delhi Assembly election. (Image: PTI)
Away from the spotlight of BJP’s mega win in Delhi crushing the Aam Aadmi Party, the silent role played by one of its kind BJP panels is being discussed within the party corridors. In a first for the BJP, a committee was created with the brief to counter and set its own narratives in this Delhi election. News18 has learnt it stepped up and worked as an anchor with various departments of the national BJP as well in its pursuit to create narratives.
Delhi BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj was the coordinator of the committee while it had three members — party’s national spokesperson Pradip Bhandari, its Karawal Nagar candidate and now MLA elect Kapil Mishra and Delhi BJP Vice President Rajiv Babbar.
How did the committee set narratives?
A source privy to the functioning of the committee told News18 on conditions of anonymity, “Let me give you specific examples. When Kejriwal made the allegation about poisoning of Yamuna, the spotlight was back on the river’s pollution just before election. The committee could send any big leader but asked his opponent Parvesh Verma to go to Yamuna Ji for dipping Kejriwal’s cutout. The visual itself set the narrative for the day for the BJP. Verma proved to be a giant killer in the New Delhi seat where he defeated Arvind Kejriwal.
When the committee was formed, it had a mandate of a three-phase attack — highlighting opposition’s negative points in the first phase (e.g. governance failure), then building a campaign around an issue that will bind everyone together and in the third phase, Modi’s guarantee, should BJP come to power, would be articulated. The BJP cited the illegal Bangladeshi issue a fit case for their second phase that bound its core voters.
As for the promises of the BJP, right from first week of January 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had been actively engaged communicating with Delhi voters. It was in the first week of January when PM Modi coined the term ‘AAP-da’ that became a part pf BJP’s campaign discourse.
How did the committee function?
Highly placed sources have told News18 that every late evening, the narrative committee used to hold a conference call where BJP’s National Media Cell representative and Social Media Cell representative used to be present where the day’s main talking points were discussed. If the Congress or the AAP had brought any charges against the BJP in the evening, early morning rebuttals by senior leadership were determined in the night itself, or else, the next afternoon press conference would discuss the issue, added the source.
But that is not where the committee’s mandate stopped. The members were in direct touch with most of the BJP candidates and sought videos of them visiting filthy areas, shut Mohalla clinics of their constituencies. “Many of them have been able to provide that. It was a potent ammunition in our hand. Whenever the time was right, we would use it,” said another source.
Surprise element was also key, the source added, which is why when the Delhi BJP released a video of the luxurious bungalow of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, where he lived while serving as the Chief Minister of Delhi, the AAP leadership was literally fumbling in its reaction.
Narrative Committee For All Polls?
“I won’t jump the gun. It was an experiment and has been a success. But don’t forget two things — had we not made the announcements in the Sankalp Patra that we have and had we not have the magic persona of brand Modi, none of these would work,” the first source added.
