The BJP has secured 163 seats in the Madhya Pradesh election. The result came as a shock to the Congress which was expecting a close fight or victory with a good margin. While the BJP leaders have credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan for the win, the BJP laid the strategy for the win three years ago when it appointed Vishnu Dutt Sharma as the state party chief in 2020, months before the collapse of the Kamal Nath government.


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An MP from Khajuraho, Vishnu Dutt Sharma was the General Secretary of BJP before being appointed the state chief. Widely known as VD, Sharma is a dedicated adherent of the RSS. He is recognized for bolstering the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing affiliated with the RSS, during the 1990s in Madhya Pradesh.


Sharma played a significant role in this election, ranging from ground-level consolidation to candidate selection, and then taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's welfare schemes to the people.


After the defeat in the 2018 Assembly elections, the BJP was much more vigilant. Following the loss, the party underwent significant organizational changes and appointed Sharma at the helm. Sharma has been the BJP's organizational chief for nearly four years and has not only formulated strategies to strengthen the party at the grassroots level but has also been seen touring smaller towns and villages, rather than just focusing on Bhopal.


When Sharma was handed over the reins of the state by the BJP's national leadership, various questions arose, hinting at the difficulty of keeping the party on the right track. However, with time, Sharma tailored campaigns according to the national leadership's discretion and the state's requirements.


The campaign to expand the party's base became noticeable in other states as well due to Sharma's style of functioning, which started drawing comparisons with the work style of Kushabhau Thakre. Outreach and communication became Sharma's significant strength, much like it was for Kushabhau Thakre. Initially, Sharma didn't receive support from senior leaders, leading him to either consider staying at home or choosing the path of opposition. Despite this, the organization's momentum began to pick up. His tenure as the president brought a significant achievement to the party — forming the government in the state after Jyotiraditya Scindia had left the Congress in 2020.


Since then, neither Sharma nor the BJP looked back and his relentless work at the grassroots level yielded the desired result for the saffron party.