BJP LOK SABHA CAMPAIGN STRATEGY IN ADVANCED LEVEL OF IMPLEMENTATION

The BJP is focusing on a 60-day membership drive, booth audit and Viksit Bharat Yatra.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

While the Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) is nowhere near getting its house in order, the BJP is already in the advanced level of executing its campaign strategies ahead of the upcoming general elections.

In 2019, the code of conduct had come into force on 11 March, while the first phase of the elections were held on 11 April. Sticking to this timeline, the first phase of the 2024 general elections are fewer than 95 days away.

As a result, the BJP, for example in Bihar, has given a 60-day deadline to its leaders to ensure that all politically exposed persons, who have contested any form of elections in their life, be it the village or the block level polls, are given BJP membership. The party will take stock of the performance of this exercise in the first week of March to gauge how many new people have joined the party.

This, as per a senior party functionary, was being done so that the vote share of the party increased at every booth. “If we can get even 2-3 people who have contested elections in the past to join the BJP, we are securing at least 2,000-3,000 additional votes as it is safe to assume that such individuals have the capacity and the support of at least 1,000 voters in their area. And these 3,000 votes, when you look in the context of one Lok Sabha seat, will turn into a huge number. We will get these additional votes just by making interested people join the BJP,” the functionary explained.