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Sensing that the Haryana Assembly polls would be held as per its schedule in October 2024, the leaders of the ruling BJP in the state have started focusing on preparations for the Lok Sabha elections slated for April-May 2024.
In their public posturing, the state BJP leaders have been maintaining that they will be ready for the grand poll battle if the Lok Sabha and the Assembly polls are held together.
However, senior BJP leaders believe that the party leadership may not like the idea of advancing the Haryana elections for the sake of holding it simultaneously with the parliamentary polls.
To reinforce this point, a senior BJP leader says the party will contest the Lok Sabha polls in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and would not want his campaign to be dented in Haryana by the “anti-incumbency” factor against the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP-JJP coalition government.
“Mixing the parliamentary election campaign with state issues prove counterproductive some times,” the senior BJP leader said. “If the BJP wins the Lok Sabha polls and forms government at the Centre, it will certainly enhance the party’s chances in the state Assembly polls too.”
Some state BJP leaders however also claim that the party high command would take a final decision on the issue of simultaneous polls at an appropriate time keeping in view the circumstances that would then prevail.
In this scenario the BJP is working out a plan to contest all ten Lok Sabha seats in the state – which it had swept in the 2019 general elections.
With Haryana BJP president Om Prakash Dhankar having kept the focus on organisation since July 2020 when he was appointed to the post, several party leaders say the state unit has been primed now to undertake organisational activities swiftly.
A BJP leader, who is actively associated with the organisational activities in the state, says: “In just 12 days – from June 18 to June 30 – we have planned 10 rallies in all 10 parliamentary constituencies. We have already held seven rallies successfully. These rallies were held with the help of party workers and resources available in the parliamentary constituencies concerned only. No help was taken from outside these constituencies. Earlier, such rallies used to be held after months of preparations involving several state leaders.”
These rallies are part of the BJP’s strategy to activate the party cadre in each of the parliamentary constituencies months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
The party leader also said: “There was a time when the meeting at mandal level used to take place only during our visits there. But in December 2022, we held meetings for all nearly 300 mandals across the state in a single day. Then we strengthened our shakti kendras – one for every five polling booths. Before this, we trained three workers for each of the polling booths.”
Appearing enthused by its organisational heft, the BJP camp also points out that the principal Opposition Congress has been beset by factionalism and infighting.
Haryana BJP media co-coordinator Sanjay Ahuja says panna pramukhs at the polling booth level are key to the party organisation’s “dominance” at the grassroots level. As part of its strategy to connect with the voters on the ground, the party has appointed panna pramukhs – each of them in charge of a “page” of the voters’ list at a booth – for its election campaign. The responsibilities of panna pramukhs include meeting voters on the list allotted to them.
Expressing confidence about the party’s prospects in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Om Prakash Dhankar had earlier told The Indian Express: “We win elections based on ‘Triveni’ – work done by the BJP government, its work culture and the sense of service to the society. We will win all 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana. We have a strong organisation at the booth level.”
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