Patna: The Bharatiya Janata Get together has added to its checklist of “difficult-to-win” seats for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections — taking the quantity from 144 to 160 — with an eye fixed on the charged political state of affairs in Bihar and Maharashtra, ThePrint has learnt.
Whereas in Bihar, the occasion misplaced its ally, the Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United) earlier this yr, it’s more likely to face a tricky combat in Maharashtra from the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — an alliance of the Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP), the Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
Within the 2019 elections, the BJP and the JD(U) had contested 17 Lok Sabha (LS) seats every. The BJP received all its seats, whereas the JD(U) misplaced just one. Of the 40 LS seats within the state, the BJP’s different ally, the Lok Janshakti Get together (LJP), received six. The Congress had received only one.
The BJP’s earlier checklist of 144 difficult-to-win seats included 4 from Bihar — Nawada, Vaishali, Valmiki Nagar, and Kishanganj, based on sources within the occasion.
With Nitish Kumar breaking away from the NDA alliance, the BJP will now must contest from extra constituencies, after allocating seats to the LJP and different smaller allies. The occasion has therefore added six extra seats to the checklist. All these seats — Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Gaya, Purnea, Katihar and Munger — are presently held by the JD(U).
In Maharashtra, the place the MVA authorities beneath former CM Uddhav Thackeray collapsed after then Shiv Sena MLA and present CM Eknath Shinde led a revolt of Sena MLAs towards the alliance, the BJP is now in energy in partnership with the Shinde-led Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena.
However with the MVA standing firmly towards the brand new authorities, the BJP has added ten extra seats, to its ‘tough’ seats checklist within the state. These seats, reminiscent of Baramati, Chandrapur, Shirpur and Satara, amongst others, are presently held by the NCP, the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena or unbiased MLAs.
The occasion’s “difficult-to-win” seats checklist already included some from throughout states like Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.
Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Bansal, who can be answerable for such seats in UP, instructed ThePrint, “The second section of the occasion’s Pravas marketing campaign is on, beneath which a Union minister is answerable for a bunch of Lok Sabha seats. Committees of five-seven members must be constituted for each meeting phase of every Lok Sabha seat which can oversee the whole ballot preparation.”
The occasion can be holding two-day Vistarak coaching programmes for these seats, mentioned sources. A session in Bihar started Wednesday. One other such session can be held in Hyderabad starting 28 December, with an eye fixed on subsequent yr’s Telangana meeting elections, the place the BJP desires to unseat the incumbent Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now renamed the Bharat Rashtra Samithi) occasion.
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‘Dynamic, evolving scenario’
Sources within the BJP instructed ThePrint that the revaluation of seats was necessitated by the modified political state of affairs in Bihar and Maharashtra.
“Once we initially shortlisted weak seats in several states, the scenario was completely different. We had an alliance with Nitish Kumar (in Bihar) and the MVA was ruling (in Maharashtra). However now, now we have to deploy extra sources on the seats held by our opponents in each the states,” mentioned a senior BJP chief, who has been deputed by the occasion to concentrate on these seats.
The chief added: “It’s a dynamic, evolving scenario the place we take choices primarily based on the altering political scenario. Tomorrow, we might add extra sources on extra seats if we discover that additional push is required there.”
The concentrate on Bihar and Maharashtra can be as a result of in each states the occasion is dealing with robust rivals, mentioned one other senior BJP chief.
“In Bihar, the JD(U)-RJD caste calculation (to faucet into caste votebanks) could also be on-point, however these numbers don’t work in Lok Sabha elections. Our alliance with the erstwhile Shiv Sena (earlier than the MVA) was a examined one in Maharashtra. Nonetheless, with Shinde, we haven’t taken the electoral take a look at but. Therefore, now we have to concentrate on the seats held by the MVA.”
Whereas the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance had received 41 seats in Maharashtra in 2019 (BJP: 23, Shiv Sena: 18), a BJP MP from Maharashtra instructed ThePrint, “for 2024, even when we’re positive to win our share of seats, we can’t be too positive in regards to the Shinde quota, and we have to hold our tally intact”.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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