Santhosh gives ‘win-all’ mantra; BJP mulls changes in UP

Amit Shah, who is widely credited for drafting the contours of the BJP win in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, has already sounded the party on focusing on seats that the BJP lost in 2019 Lok Sabha polls

LUCKNOW Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national general secretary (organisation), BL Santhosh, held marathon meetings with party functionaries here amid indications that the party could initiate organisational changes in the state with the urban local body polls pushed back for some time.

UP BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary (left) welcomed party national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh (wearing off white jacket) as he arrived for a two-day meeting in Lucknow to take stock of party preparedness for forthcoming polls in UP. (Sourced)

Santhosh’s visit comes ahead of separate visits by Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda this month and next, party leaders said.

Shah, who is widely credited for drafting the contours of the famous BJP win in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, one, in which BJP swept everything, winning all except seven of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats in U.P, has already sounded the party on focusing on seats that the BJP lost in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Party leaders said Santhosh too asked the party top brass to prepare strategy for seats where the BJP failed in 2019. The saffron party had failed to win 16 LS seats in U.P. Of these, the party has since won two – Azamgarh and Rampur – in the June bypolls.

Shah could visit some of the seats where BJP doesn’t have its own Lok Sabha MP. In western U.P, he could assess the impact of SP-RLD combine and Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, which will cover 11 assembly segments across three western UP districts in three days, said party leaders.

After rounds of meetings at the U.P. BJP office, Santhosh, along with party’s state leaders who are part of the core committee, moved to the official residence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath to have yet another round of strategy formulation for the polls ahead.

“We must ensure that the BJP wins the forthcoming MLC polls as well as the urban local bodies’ polls,” Santhosh said during his interaction with cadre and leaders, setting both short term (MLC, urban local body polls) and long term (2024 Lok Sabha polls) goals before them.

Some BJP leaders said after a brief lull, the ruling party could again “open its doors” to welcome some key opposition leaders into the party.

Santhosh also stressed the need for marketing various pro-poor schemes of the ‘double engine’ Modi and Yogi governments.

The roll-out of pro-poor schemes among beneficiaries too was being done at the booth-level with the party using these schemes to connect with people in constituencies with sizeable Muslim presence, like Azamgarh and Rampur, where BJP candidates won in Lok Sabha and assembly bypolls in June and December.

“Ensure that no needy is left out of the purview of these schemes,” he said while simultaneously advising the cadre against any let-up on booth focus.

Since 2013, when the present Union home minister Amit Shah became UP BJP in-charge and emphasized on booth level mobilisation of cadres, the booths had become an integral focus in all BJP campaigns.

On the occasion, BJP’s national vice-president and UP in-charge Radha Mohan Singh, state BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary and general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh, state co-incharges - Satyakumar, Sanjeev Chaurasia and Sunil Ojha - were present among the leaders at the meetings with Santhosh.