Lok Sabha elections: BJP poll panel meets, weaker seats top focus

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, February 29

The ruling BJP on Thursday set the ball rolling for the Lok Sabha elections with the party’s central election committee, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, holding its first meeting in the national capital ahead of the 18th General Election, to be announced in March.

The committee is likely to take up the weaker 161 parliamentary segments — classified as D on a scale of A, B, C and D, depending on the level of difficulty — for discussions in the first round.

These are the seats where the party either did not win or won by less than expected margins. Sources said the BJP could declare candidates in tougher segments ahead of others where it was surer of victory, the idea being to give the contestants ample time for outreach and commence campaigns of top leaders in order to target the victory goal of 370 plus segments for the BJP and 400 plus for the NDA. “A lot of such weak seats are in southern and eastern India. This strategy paid off in the Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh elections, which the BJP won despite challenges,” a source said.

Of the 161 weaker seats, 100 — Tamil Nadu (39), Andhra Pradesh (25), Kerala (20), Telangana (13), Karnataka (3) — are in five southern states alone. Five southern states have 129 seats in all with the BJP currently holding 29 (25 of 28 in Karnataka, four of 17 in Telangana and none in the other three). Among the remaining weak seats, 25 are in Bengal and 13 in Odisha.

The party chose these for ministerial outreach in order to ensure a repeat win, which could be challenging due to anti-incumbency and an already thin victory margin in 2019. For instance, three D category seats are in Rajasthan also, namely Dausa, Karauli Dholpur (SC) and Nagaur. In Nagaur, BJP ally RLP had won last time. “The three D category seats in Rajasthan are the ones where the party won with a margin of less than one lakh votes as against some seats where we won by over six lakh also,” a source said.

In Rajasthan, the BJP has decided not to field sitting MLAs — Deputy CM Diya Kumari, ministers Rajyavardhan Rathore and Kirori Lal Meena, and Vasundhara Raje — among others. “Vasundhara Raje’s son is likely to get the ticket,” a source said.

The Tribune has also learnt that Bhupender Yadav’s name is being considered from two LS seats — Bhiwani-Mahendragarh in Haryana and Alwar in Rajasthan.

Bhupender Yadav from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh?

• Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav’s name in contention from two seats: Bhiwani-Mahendragarh in Haryana and Alwar in Rajasthan
• In Rajasthan, sitting MLAs such as Diya Kumari and Vasundhara Raje unlikely to be fielded for the LS elections
• Most weak seats, where party either didn’t win or won by less margin, in South and East India, likely to be settled first