2024 polls: BJP eyeing to tighten grip
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: April 29, 2022 -
IT'S still over two years away but the ruling BJP seems to be well prepared to neutralise any gains, if any, the opposition parties had made since the conduct of the 2019 parliamentary elections to stroll to power again in the 2024 polls.
Having warmed the opposition bench for multiple terms as the Congress and its allies had extended rule Since the country's independence, there is no doubt that the BJP wouldn't give up the power so easily.
With the non-NDA parties unable to shed their differences in-spite of leaders of some regional parties trying to forge unity ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is calmly focussing on retaining power as is evident from reports that the saffron party has identified 73,000 polling booths where it is weak and has constituted a committee to strengthen the party's position on them.
The BJP poll strategists eyeing to capture as many seats as possible out of the 150 Lok Sabha constituencies where it didn't fare well in the last elections signify that the party has firm resolve of giving a tough fight to its rivals.
Moreover, hesitancy of the Indian National Congress to reciprocate positively to the friendly gestures by non-NDA parties, including Trinamool Congress, also appears to be working in favour of the BJP.
Contrary to the Congress party's reluctance to work with regional parties, the BJP has been showing no such remorse in bringing on board any political entity, as its main primary objective is to keep the Congress away from national politics at any cost.
BJP's camaraderie with smaller parties is also evident from the composition of the NDA-II government where the regional parties have fair share of power regardless of the fact that the saffron party has over 300-plus MPs in the 543 seat Lok Sabha.
The BJP's strategy to accommodate regional parties is also a major factor for the party achieving its goal to weaken the Congress party as the latter presently has only 53 parliamentarians elected from limited number of states or union territories.
Regional parties holding power in southern and eastern states might be able to counter the growing stature of the BJP in case there are no serious administrative lapses or public disenchantment.
However, the regional parties cannot rest assured in view of the BJP contemplating to draw a blue print for strengthening its position in 150 Lok Sabha constituencies where it has not done well in previous several polls.
Having identified the weak booths on the basis of 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections and a committee entrusted to minutely assess and formulate strategies to substantially increase the party's vote share on these booths in the 2024 polls, the BJP has already done the ground work to sound the poll bugle.
With the Congress party becoming no more the force to reckon with in the northeast, it is obvious that BJP's priority area and interest would be in states like West Bengal, Odisha and the southern region where it is not in power but has comparatively large number of Lok Sabha seats that could ultimately make a huge difference on which the party or alliances could wrest power in 2024.
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