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BJP assessment puts them on sticky turf in 70 seats
The Maharashtra unit of the party has started pulling all strings to ensure better performance in the coming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. In a bid to galvanise the party, it has decided to change most of its existing 75 district presidents
Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) internal assessment has revealed that the party has potentially strong candidates in 165 out of 288 Assembly constituencies in the state. However, of the remaining seats, the party finds itself in a weak position in over 70 seats, while Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, smaller parties and independent MLAs are believed to be strong contenders in 50 seats.
According to party leaders involved in the process, the assessment will form the basis of the BJP’s plan to win the next assembly elections scheduled to be held next year.
Following the humiliating defeat in recent Karnataka Assembly polls, the Maharashtra unit of the party has started pulling all strings to ensure better performance in the coming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. In a bid to galvanise the party, it has decided to change most of its existing 75 district presidents and will soon announce leader in-charge of each of the assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies.
Former MLAs, ministers and senior leaders are expected to be appointed in-charge for better monitoring. The party has also decided to take up an outreach programme to reach out to 60,000 families in each Assembly constituency. Besides this, the party has taken stock of the probable candidates.
“We have strong candidates in 165 constituencies. In remaining constituencies, we either have no presence or have no strong candidate with electoral merit. Of them, our ruling partner Shiv Sena, independents and smaller parties have about 50 MLAs. This means there are 72 constituencies in which we are weaker. With the target of winning 200 seats, we are still lagging behind the Opposition in a sizable number of constituencies,” a senior BJP leader said.
Moreover, the party leadership believes they cannot emerge stronger in these constituencies in the time left for the elections. They, however, believe that poaching and induction of stronger leaders and probable candidates from the opposition parties is an option to improve the prospects.
Another BJP leader said, “For instance, if NCP leader Ajit Pawar or Congress’ Ashok Chavan join us, our probabilities in at least four constituencies each in Pune and Nanded will improve significantly. Some of the Opposition leaders may join the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and if our performance in LS polls is better, more opposition leaders will join us.” Both Pawar and Chavan had, earlier, denied that they were in touch with the BJP.
Meanwhile, the party had begun the process of appointing in-charge for the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies.
The party’s state leadership believes that by concentrating on the state and central scheme beneficiaries as the potential voters, the performance of the ruling parties in the elections could improve. “Our drive of reaching 60,000 families will cover each Assembly constituency. The booth-level committees and party workers have been given a target to reach these families in a time-bound manner,” the leader said.
