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May perform ‘reasonably well’ in first phase of Lok Sabha polls: BJP
Experts say the BJP is fighting this election like a corporate war and is trying to retain its position of primacy more by the dint of electoral machination than the enthusiasm of its workers.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may do reasonably well in seats where polling took place on Thursday and will improve its tally from the previous general election, three leaders handling the party’s campaign and election management said on Friday.
Of 91 seats where polling was held in the first phase of the seven-phase general election, the BJP won 32 in the 2014 election. “We will cross this number,” the first leader said.
“Eight seats in Uttar Pradesh and seven in Maharashtra were real tests,” said the second leader. “We seem to have done ‘reasonably well’ in these two states.” While the BJP alone had won all the eight seats in Western UP the last time around, it won all seven in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra jointly with ally Shiv Sena.
The third leader said the opposition alliance of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) might have upset the arithmetic in three (Baghpat, Kairana and Bijnor) of the eight UP seats but gains elsewhere in the state may compensate for any losses .
The third BJP leader claimed there was a serious issue with the transfer of votes between the BSP and the RLD whose traditional support bases — Dalits and Jats, respectively — have had a strained relationship. The Samajwadi Party, this leader said, has a limited presence in western UP.
“We have received an overwhelming support from urban areas, the upper castes and the lower backward communities,” the third leader claimed. “There are others such as Gujjars and the trading communities, where the BJP has scored over its rivals in Uttar Pradesh.”
The first leader said winning all seven seats was a possibility in Maharashtra, where the Sena-BJP alliance remains strong. The BJP has a strong base in Vidarbha. The party is also expecting gains of “6-7 seats” in West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Assam, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the second leader said. The BJP has no representation from either of the two seats of West Bengal, four of Odisha, one each of Tripura and Arunchal Pradesh. It has just two in Andhra Pradesh and one in Telanagana. BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni claimed the party will not only retain its seats in UP, Bihar and Maharashtra, but will also make inroads in Bengal and north-east. “Our alliance has managed to do well, compared to the opposition,” he said.
Experts say the BJP is fighting this election like a corporate war and is trying to retain its position of primacy more by the dint of electoral machination than the enthusiasm of its workers.
“It is also working on the formula of making up its losses by gaining in new territories of Bengal and the Northeast,” said Sidharth Mishra, president, Centre for Reforms Development and Justice. “In Western UP, getting the Dalit voters to cast votes in support of Jat leaders is a big task. But that does not mean that Dalit voted for the BJP. Congress is also an option for them with [Bhim Army chief] Chandrashekhar Azad extending his support to their candidates in seats such as Saharanpur.”
