BJP Examines ‘Vulnerable Seats’ In Poll

Eyeing upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, BJP top brass on Wednesday held separate meetings with party leaders from both the poll-bound states. The main focus of the meeting was on strengthening the party in weaker Assembly segments.

According to reports, the saffron party identified 125 vulnerable constituencies in Madhya Pradesh and 27 in Chhattisgarh, where the party was in a comparatively ‘weaker position’. The BJP has reportedly classified the seats into four categories — A, B, C, D — based on the probability of its victory in the segments.

The seats where BJP predicts its victory or could give a strong fight are placed in A and B categories. Whereas C and D categories have seats where BJP won the previous election with very less warning or where it has never won an election.

The party is considering the seats included in C and D categories as a major challenge for itself and the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting was called to prepare a strategy to win the elections on these “weak sections”.

Of 125 weak seats in Madhya Pradesh, 103 are those on which the BJP lost in the 2018 Assembly elections while the remaining 22 are those, where the party’s victory margin was very small.

Similarly, of 27 weak seats in Chhattisgarh, five are those on which the BJP has never won while the remaining 22 are those, where the party’s victory margin was very small. In the meetings, leaders comprehensively discussed the issues which are more effective in these weak seats and can be raised at the local level to make a strong connection with the voters.

The CEC meetings, chaired by party President J.P. Nadda, were attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and BJP National General Secretary (Organization) B.L. Santhosh, among others.

Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav, who is the party’s state election in-charge of Madhya Pradesh and Om Prakash Mathur, the party’s in-charge of Chhattisgarh were also present in meetings related to their respective states.

In general, the party’s CEC meeting is called to discuss the names of the probable candidates for the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Such meetings are usually called only after the election dates are announced by the Election Commission. However, sources said that the party is in no mood to take any risk in poll-bound states and this was the reason why CEC meetings were organised before the formal announcement of elections.

Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana are to be held by the end of the year. The BJP has already started preparations in advance, taking lessons from the results of the 2018 elections, so that by the time election schedules are announced, the party candidates would have a lead over the candidates of rival parties.