Ahmedabad : The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat is gearing up for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections with a focus on local body representatives. After winning all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state in two consecutive elections, the BJP is aiming for a hat-trick this time.
Relying on its micro management strategy, the BJP has started working on a plan to reach out to the last person in the state. Under this, the party plans to field representatives of local bodies as its warriors in the Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP has a clear majority in 31 district panchayats, 196 tehsil panchayats, and 74 municipalities in Gujarat. It is also in control of all eight municipal corporations in the state. Encouraged by its capture of the village government, the BJP is preparing to make the public representatives of its villages its warriors this time.
The party organization will provide better training to these elected public representatives in municipalities, metropolitan municipalities, tehsil panchayats, and district panchayats. An important meeting of BJP officials has also been held in this regard, with national officials of the party also expected to participate in the training class.
According to sources, such meetings will be organized in all the districts of Gujarat.
In addition to reaching out to local body representatives, the BJP is also making efforts to take feedback from the grassroots level. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and State BJP President CR Patil are continuously visiting districts one after the other for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. They are coordinating with organizations and public representatives to get acquainted with their issues and problems.
The BJP is also holding meetings with officials of various forums and morchas to connect with the ground reality. The party is currently collecting information about the actual situation in each Lok Sabha seat and the assembly seats under it, as well as in district panchayats, municipalities, and municipal corporations.
Apart from BJP's organization and public representatives, feedback is also being taken from independent agencies and people.
The BJP is paying special attention to those places where it was lagging behind in Saurashtra and South Gujarat in the last assembly elections. In these districts, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had shown its strength in the tribal belt.
In the assembly elections, AAP or an independent candidate had won one seat each in the following districts: Amreli, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Junagadh, Botad, Kutch, Surendranagar, Bhavnagar, Valsad, Dangs, Surat, Bharuch, Narmada, Dahod, Vadodara, Panchmahal, Kheda, Tapi, Gandhinagar, and Aravalli.
The BJP is taking advantage of this situation and presenting itself as an alternative to Congress. In these districts, AAP and Independents got one each in Amreli, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Junagadh, Botad, Kutch, Surendranagar, Bhavnagar, Valsad, Dangs, Surat, Bharuch, Narmada, Dahod, Vadodara, Panchmahal, Kheda, Tapi, Gandhinagar, Aravalli districts. The seat was successful.
The BJP has also focused on those booths in these 19 districts where the party was in minus. According to the list of beneficiaries of central and state schemes in these areas, feedback is being taken by contacting them through various agencies.
Besides, they are also being reminded of the benefits of the schemes, so that inclination towards BJP arises in their mind. The party has also assessed the vote distribution between AAP and independent candidates.
Under this, there are 29 seats where the margin of victory is just more than 500 and less than 10 thousand. In this, BJP has got 15 seats and Congress has got 10 seats. Whereas AAP has got 3 seats and Independent has got 1 seat.
The BJP is confident that its micro management strategy and focus on local body representatives will help it win all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat for the third time in a row.
