New Delhi: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken swift action following recent setbacks in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, as it prepares for the upcoming state elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana. BJP National president Jagat Prakash Nadda has appointed key leaders to oversee the party’s election campaigns in these poll-bound states.
For Rajasthan, Union minister Pralhad Joshi has been appointed as the poll in-charge, with former Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and Haryana BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi serving as co-in charges. Similarly, Om Mathur and Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya have been named poll in charge for Chhattisgarh, while two Union Ministers, Bhupendra Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw, will hold the same positions for Madhya Pradesh. In Telangana, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, former Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, and BJP General Secretary Sunil Bansal have been assigned as poll in charge.
The BJP has initiated a reorganisation process within the party to strengthen its grassroots organisation and motivate party workers and officials. In recent weeks, top BJP leaders have made several visits to Rajasthan to bolster the party’s presence in the state. Amit Shah visited Udaipur, JP Nadda visited Bharatpur, Rajnath Singh visited Jodhpur, and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Bikaner. During his visit, PM will inaugurate the Greenfield Expressway between Amritsar and Jamnagar, as well as the Green Energy Corridor, representing an investment of Rs 25,000 crore. This move is seen as an effort to solidify the party’s support in 30 Assembly seats across six districts of northwestern Rajasthan, including four Lok Sabha seats.
In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP faces a major challenge with the recent incident involving an alleged BJP leader urinating on the face of a tribal man in Sidhi district. With the tribal vote comprising over 21 per cent of the state’s population, the incident could have repercussions for the party. Of the 230 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, 47 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. In the previous elections, BJP won only 15 of these constituencies, while the Congress secured 31, enabling it to form a government led by Kamal Nath in 2018. The tribal vote is also influential in more than 30 other constituencies and holds significance in 89 tribal blocks out of the total 313 development blocks in the state. However, BJP managed to win 28 out of the 29 Lok Sabha seats, including all the reserved parliamentary constituencies, in the 2019 general elections, benefiting from the Modi wave.
In response to these challenges, the BJP plans to launch a tribe-centric campaign in Madhya Pradesh, as discussed between Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah during their recent meeting.
Meanwhile, Amit Shah held a closed-door meeting with senior leaders from Chhattisgarh, providing them with a roadmap for success. In Telangana, the BJP is grappling with internal discord and an influx of defectors ahead of the upcoming state elections, scheduled for later this year.
Furthermore, the BJP is conducting three zone-wise meetings of its state leadership from July 6 to 8 to review organisational activities and strategise for the forthcoming elections, including the national polls. These meetings, chaired by JP Nadda, follow a recent meeting led by Prime Minister, which focused on preparing for the Lok Sabha elections and resulted in speculation about organisational changes within the party. As BJP takes decisive steps to revamp its strategies, the political landscape in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana promises to witness intense competition and dynamic campaigning as the state elections draw nearer.