Buoyed by projections made by recent opinion polls and electoral victories in three heartland States, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is going ahead with its plan to finalise this week the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections expected to be held in April-May.
The party’s central election committee is expected to meet here to select candidates for smaller States such as Goa, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Its leadership will then turn its focus to bigger States such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
“Results from Uttar Pradesh will surprise everyone. Our party will reap a rich harvest of parliamentary seats in U.P.,” a senior BJP leader told The Hindu . With 80 Lok Sabha seats, the State is a natural choice for the party to spend its energies to win as many seats as possible. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, 10 seats came its way in the State, with a vote share of 17.25 per cent.
Amit Shah, close aide of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, plucked out of Gujarat to manage party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, is thrashing out party strategy right from the booth level in the State.
With its “Mission 272-plus” and “Modi for PM” campaign, the party is hoping to break the barrier of winning 272 Lok Sabha seats, the number required to form a government on its own strength. The party leaders are, however, aware that this is easier said than done.
