BJP mulls course correction measures with focus on 13 LS seats lost in last election

With an eye on the 2024 general elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Regional In-Charge, Sunil Bansal held a closed-door meeting with party leaders from 13 Lok Sabha constituencies on the second day of his Odisha visit on Friday. The party had lost the seats in the last election.

Bansal’s visit assumes importance as he came to Bhubaneswar after attending BJP’s meeting in Guwahati which was held to discuss preparations and strategies for 12 eastern India states including Odisha for the 2024 general elections.

As per reports, Bansal not only focussed on those 13 constituencies, he also reviewed reports from all the LS constituencies submitted by district in-charges and matched it with the reports submitted by Union Ministers under Lok Sabha Prabas Yojana to decide the future course of action of the party.

“We discussed the future course of action on both election and organisation-oriented programmes. Bansal will assign new responsibilities to all which will be disclosed later,” said Odisha BJP Chief Manmohan Samal.

BJP General Secretary, Golak Mohapatra said, “The welfare schemes of PM Modi do not reach the masses. Instead, the benefits are hijacked by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha. Our focus will be to make sure all the benefits from the Centre reach the people. The BJP is making all kinds of plans to win Assembly polls next year.”

Apart from LS constituencies, Bansal also put emphasis on booth management. He discussed PM Modi’s mantra of booth management with the Vistaraks and reviewed the implementation of his ideas in their respective booths. Bansal suggested them strategies to reach out to voters at the booth level with the Vistaraks. They will visit every home in each booth and make the voters aware of the alleged failures of the current government led by CM Naveen Patnaik.

Pertinent to mention here that two Vistaraks from each Assembly Constituency in Odisha had joined PM Modi’s workshop held in Bhopal recently.

While such an approach to strengthen booths indicated BJP’s renewed focus on Odisha assembly seats, the experts also welcomed it expecting the party to give a tough fight to BJD.

“BJP has its primary focus on the LS seats that they had lost in the 2019 elections. While this can be said as a good strategy, they need to work harder and effect a major change in their plans to actually make a difference,” said political analyst, Prasanna Mohanty.