New Delhi: The BJP, which has suffered a drubbing from a resurgent Congress in Karnataka recently, is looking to salvage some pride by winning coming state elections slated later this year. A desperate BJP has kickstarted its month-long pan-India campaign, 'Maha Jansampark', in poll-bound Rajasthan on Wednesday.
The crushing defeat of the BJP in Karnataka has forced the party to go on from attack to 'alert mode'. Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a full-scale diatribe on the Congress at a major public rally in Rajasthan while highlighting the nine years of the BJP government's 'achievements' at the centre, the party mandarins seem not so much confident about the party's poll prospects in the upcoming state elections.
The desperation for BJP is to drum up much support for the party during the month-long pan-India campaign, 'Maha Jansampark', in the poll-bound states before elections begin. The mass public outreach campaign, which started on May 31 and will continue till June 30, is an extensive outreach across the country to project the achievements during these nine years with the party at the helm in the Centre. Before the 2024 general elections, state elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are a testing ground for the party which see these polls as 'semi-finals' before the 'grand finale.'
The party is terming the nine years of its government at the Centre as 'Garib Kalyan Varsh'. According to the saffron party leaders, ten years before 2014 were marked by 'policy paralysis.' A senior party leader said his party knows that the battle of 2024 will not be won by merely counting achievements. According to sources, there will be a reshuffle in the Modi cabinet around June 10. Some new faces will be inducted from the poll-bound states.
The idea is to bring popular leaders from the states to the Centre by making them ministers so that dissent is nipped in the bud. The BJP prioritised the Ajmer rally and is eyeing 51 mega rallies in the run-up to the 2024 elections. The party has planned more general meetings. The saffron party is planning to bring in more leaders to the national scene from states where it wants penetration. The senior leaders of the party like PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Party President JP Nadda, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will participate in the mass outreach rallies.
For the 2024 general elections, 543 Lok Sabha seats have been divided into 144 clusters. Two groups of leaders will remain in each cluster for eight days. There will be a total of 288 prominent leaders including Union ministers and senior party functionaries in these teams. They will go for outreach in more than 4,000 assembly constituencies in 1 44 clusters. In every Lok Sabha, leaders will meet 1,000 such distinguished people. As many as 16 lakh BJP workers across the country will be involved in these programmes. The party leaders are largely silent on the cabinet reshuffle. BJP's National General Secretary Tarun Chugh, however, said he is supervising this mega public outreach event as desperation to win the 2024 general election is more and urgency is greater this time.
Also read: 'Busy fighting with each other': In Ajmer, PM Modi's jibe at Congress over Gehlot-Pilot row
