With the general election 2024 being less than a year away, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already stepped up its preparations to form government in Odisha and win maximum Lok Sabha seats. For this, the saffron party is going to prepare a strategy at its Guwahati meet on July 6.
A five-member team comprising state president Manmohan Samal, regional prabhari Sunil Bansal, state prabhari D Purandeswari, assistant prabhari Bijaypal Singh Tomar and organisational general secretary Manas Mohanty are all set to attend the July 6 meet. The discussion will feature what more will be required to capture Odisha.
Odisha has been in the focus of the top leaders since the party won eight Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections. And, state president Manmohan Samal is sanguine about the prospect of the party winning all the 21 seats.
“We will form a comfortable government in Odisha. While we will form the government in the centre for the third time in a row, we will win all the 21 seats in Odisha,” said Samal.
On the other hand, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said neither Delhi strategy nor Guwahati strategy will work against the party.
“In the past too, the BJP was boasting of mission 120. The people are well aware of the result. Let them boast of and people of Odisha would give them a befitting reply in the election,” said BJD MLA Dhruba Sahu.
However, the Congress is of the opinion that the state will witness a friendly fight between the BJP and the BJD.
“After four years of compromise, they (BJP and BJD) are now preparing to fight. The hidden agenda is that the votes the BJD would lose should go to the BJP,” observed Congress leader Tara Prasad Bahinipati.
As many as 12 eastern states like West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Asam, Manipur, Meghalay, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura will take part in the Guwahati meet. Of the total 142 Lok Sabha seats in the eastern India, the saffron party has only 68 seats. And most importantly, the party is not in power in bigger states like Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand. If added together, the total Lok Sabha seats in these states will be 117.
So the party’s strategy will be to win maximum seats in these four non-BJP states.
“The July 6 meet is important for the party. It was thought that the BJP didn’t have a stronghold in the eastern states. But the last election results proved it wrong. The party performed well in eastern India, more so in northeastern. They have the hope that the party can do well here. If they lose some seats in North and Western India, that will be compensated here,” observed political analyst Rabi Das.