Eyeing 350 seats in 2024, BJP gets into micro-management mode

The BJP, which single-handedly won 303 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by securing nearly 38 per cent votes, has set a target of winning 350 plus seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. For this, the party is working on several fronts simultaneously.

Besides the seats on which it has a stronghold, the saffron party, this time, is also focusing on the parliamentary constituencies of Sonia Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav, Sharad Pawar and several others which are held by veteran leaders, on which it has never been able to win.

Similarly, the party is also eyeing those states of South India, where it could not perform well in 2019.

What’s the BJP’s strategy to achieve the target of 350 plus seats:

Last year, the BJP had prepared a special list of those Lok Sabha seats on which it was defeated in the 2019 elections. This list specifically includes those Lok Sabha seats on which the BJP stood at number 2 or lost by a very small margin.

Earlier, 144 constituencies were included in this list, which later increased to 160.

By dividing these seats into clusters of 2-4 seats, the responsibility to strengthen the party on these seats has been given to Central ministers and veteran leaders of the party. Besides this, coordinators and co-convenors were appointed at the state level.

The party came up with the ‘Lok Sabha Pravas Yojana’ under which Central ministers and veteran leaders are deputed to these constituencies to strengthen the party’s base there.

The party has given the responsibility of making this programme a success to its trinity of three general secretaries – Sunil Bansal, Vinod Tawde and Tarun Chugh.

This week, BJP President J.P. Nadda reviewed the work done so far and the deputation of ministers and leaders. He also gave important instructions to the cluster in-charges.

Special preparation on these 160 “weak seats” does not mean that the party has diverted its attention from other Lok Sabha seats. In fact, it is preparing vigorously preparing for all the Lok Sabha constituencies in the country.

For the first time in its political history, the BJP has divided all the states and Union Territories (UTs) across the country into three sectors – East Region, North Region and South Region to simplify the management and execution of its strategies on micro levels.

The party has included 12 states in the East region – Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura. Whereas in the North Region, 14 states and UTs – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh and Daman Diu-Dadra Nagar Haveli are included.

With a special focus on Mission South India, the BJP has included 11 states and UTs in the South region – Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. The party is also going to hold a meeting of leaders of the states under the East Region in Guwahati this month.

The meeting of the states included in the North Region has been held in Delhi and the meeting of the states included in the South Region has been held in Hyderabad.

The BJP is working hard in five states of South India — Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. There are 129 Lok Sabha seats in these five states in total and out of this, the BJP has only 29 seats — 25 seats in Karnataka and four in Telangana.

After the defeat in the Karnataka Assembly elections, the BJP is paying special attention to saving its land in Karnataka as well as increasing seats in Telangana and opening accounts in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.