BJP resets target, to focus on one lakh weak booths ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls

By Payal Mehta
New Delhi [India], October 15 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had identified 73,000 booths where it is weak and formed a panel to strengthen its base, has now decided to expand the number to one lakh as part of its preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
BJP national president JP Nadda had formed a committee led by party vice president Baijayant Panda to focus on 73,000 weak booths across the country.
Now with the increase in the number of identified booths, BJP teams have visited 90,000 booths to strengthen the party.
Apart from MPs and members of the legislative assembly, more than 40,000 party workers have been working on the ground to strengthen booths.
While MPs and MLAs are focusing on their constituencies, MLCs and Rajya Sabha members have also been given constituencies to focus on.
The data obtained will be sent to the party leaders to help the party focus sharply on seats considered weak.
An application has been developed for constant communication and real-time feedback so that information about targets that have been set up can be uploaded.
Call centres at state and national levels have been set up, so calls can be made to people at the grassroots and verify data uploaded on the app.
The sources also said that multiple feedback has been received from states including those where the BJP is in power.
The party is also keen to address any perception that its cadre in Bengal is scared to take on the ruling dispensation after the post-poll violence.
In some seats, the party has received feedback that local MPs or MLAs are not adequately engaged with people, sources said adding that differences among local leaders are also seen to be a reason for the party not getting success on some seats.
Another challenge is of similar sounding names of central government-run schemes and state government schemes.
It has been brought to the notice of the party top brass that in some non-BJP-rules states, there is confusion among people about the ownership of some beneficial scheme run by the Centre due to similar sounding names of the central and state schemes.
While the panel of weak booths is headed by Panda, another committee which has identified 144 weak Lok Sabha seats is working under the guidance of Home Minister Amit Shah.
This committee has instructed union ministers to spend at least three nights in a month in constituencies assigned to them until the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and to seek constant feedback from the ground and share it with the party's top brass.
These weak booths as well as weak Lok Sabha seats have been identified by the party based on its performance in the 2014 and 2019 polls.
Most of these seats are in the southern and eastern parts of the country where BJP is trying to expand its footprint.
The BJP achieved success in West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by winning 18 seats and is keen to win a majority of the 144 Lok Sabha seats it lost in the previous elections.
The BJP does not have a Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.