Those who won with a margin of 1-2% may not be fielded again.
BJP Lok Sabha members, who won their seats in 2019 with a margin of 1-2% are unlikely to be re-fielded by the party in the general elections, party source said, hinting at the saffron outfit’s unwillingness to take any chances in its march towards bagging 350-400 seats in the coming general elections.
In 2019, 27 BJP Lok Sabha election contestants had won by a vote margin of 1% or less. Those who won by a vote margin of 2% or less numbered 48. Sources said that most of these 75 sitting MPs are unlikely to be re-fielded by the BJP as there seems to be a high chance of their defeat.
Apart from these, around 61 Lok Sabha MPs have crossed a certain age and there are 20 MPs who have won from the same seat in three successive elections. On all these seats, barring a few exceptions, the BJP is planning to change its candidates.
The party has identified 240 seats as weak on which the think-tank is trying to implement a strategy similar to the one that was used in 2019 on about 119 seats that were never won by it till then. “Our special efforts in 2019 had got us 58 seats out of the 119 which we had not won till then,” said a senior leader.
“This time we have identified 240 seats, including 133 which the party lost in 2019, on which there is a special focus. The party expects the gains on these seats to improve its tally from that of the last election,” he said.
Another 31 seats would get special attention as these are those on which the party has been forced to fight the elections solo due to discontinuation of alliances in states like Bihar, West Bengal and Punjab, said party insiders.
Sources said the BJP has formed 146 clusters of 3-4 seats each and made a senior party leader in-charge of each cluster. These cluster heads will activate the booth-level workers on all 543 LS seats.
Special outreach programmes have also been chalked out to connect with voters and beneficiaries of welfare schemes, especially in southern states, West Bengal and Bihar. Special focus is being given to reaching out to women and first-time voters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President J.P. Nadda are said to be personally monitoring the progress being made by the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra that has already touched base with 15 crore people in 2.21 gram panchayats and 9,541 urban areas over the last two months, said a party leader.
Just like the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP think-tank is preparing for an early declaration of names of its candidates. Names of Amit Shah and other stalwarts are also likely to be announced as BJP nominees in the first week of February.
“The overall target is to raise the vote share by 10%,” said an aide of National President J.P. Nadda.
The strategy for improving party performance on the lost seats is being crafted along with the party’s push to bring as many as possible devotees in Ayodhya for Ram Lalla’s darshan over the next two months. The thinking within the party is to optimise the temple-related outreach in the next two months, starting 25 January, so that the BJP can beat the model code of conduct that may kick in around March-end with the announcement of the dates for the general elections.
A party source said the target may be to get at least 5,000 devotees from all Lok Sabha constituencies.