The BJP has kicked off a spree of meetings for next year’s lok Sabha elections. On Tuesday, members of the party’s core group on Uttar Pradesh went into a huddle to assess the situation post-Muzaffarnagar riots.
The meeting, convened by BJP president Rajnath Singh, was attended by vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, general secretary in-charge of the State Amit Shah, State unit chief lakshmikant Bajpayee, Vinay Katiyar and Varun Gandhi.
“I have called leaders from Uttar Pradesh to discuss the situation and evolve a strategy for the upcoming polls,” said Singh, holding the Akhilesh Yadav Government responsible for the riots.
Singh will hold another meeting, with the core group from North-Eastern States this time, in Guwahati on September 18 and 19. On the other hand, Seniors leaders from Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana will gather in Chandigarh on September 23 and 24 for a similar meeting. On September 26 and
27, the core group of BJP leaders from south India will meet in Chennai.
Dates of the core group meet for western (Gujarat and Maharashtra) and eastern (West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha) zones have not been finalised yet.
“Tuesday’s meeting discussed Uttar Pradesh issues and we feel the party will improve its performance massively. Yes, a polarisation of sorts is happening in the State, but the overall mood against the Samajwadi Party Government and Congress Government at the Centre is also helping,” noted a BJP leader who attended the meet.
BJP feels it stands a good chance to win around 40 seats. The party claims that though it bagged 10 seats on its own, it helped the Rashtriya lok Dal to win another five seats. “We lost nearly 10 seats with a margin of around 50,000 votes and another three lok Sabha seats by less then 10,000 votes. Going by these figures, we were a major player for 25-30 seats even in the last election,” BJP leaders pointed out.
They claim Modi’s categorical projection as the prime ministerial candidate will significantly improve strike rate this time.
BJP leaders are hopeful that rise of an OBC leader, Modi - also the Hindutva mascot equally popular among the upper caste — would help the party stitch up its magical combination of non-Yadav OBC plus upper castes.
This particular mix once gave close to 60 lok Sabha seats to the party.
The BJP plans to start announcing names of its lok Sabha candidates for Uttar Pradesh by end of October.