Lok Sabha Polls 2024: With Lok Sabha elections just a few months away, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a record third term. The party has always expressed confidence about winning the upcoming elections. As per the Hindustan Times report, The Election Commission is expected to announce the dates of the Lok Sabha elections somewhere after 13 March and currently, the teams in EC are on their state visits in order to review poll preparedness.
On Saturday, The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held the core group meeting of five states at the party headquarters in New Delhi. The meeting was led by party National President JP Nadda in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah and Organisation General Secretary BL Santosh. The strategy to win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with a majority and review the lost seats were discussed.
Here’s what we know so far
What was discussed in the core group meeting
In Saturday’s meeting, core group meeting of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan were called. Sources told news agency ANI that in the meeting held regarding UP, there was a discussion regarding the lost seats. A special strategy was made for the Rae Bareli and Mainpuri seats. There was also a discussion regarding MLC elections. The party is also likely to announce candidates for its ‘weak seats’ in the state before election dates are announced, sources told India Today TV.
In the West Bengal core group meeting, State President Sukanta Majumdar, Suvendu Adhikari and others were present at this meeting. 42 Lok Sabha seats were particularly discussed during the meeting, Sources told ANI. The vandalism that took place in Sandesh Khali was also specifically discussed with Amit Shah and other core group members present in the meeting. The party is closely monitoring 35 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal. PM Modi will launch his campaign for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 from West Bengal. The report also stated that PM Modi will trumpet the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 from West Bengal.
In the Telangana core group meeting, Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy, D.K. Aruna, Dr K. Lakshan, Bandi Sanjay and Atla Rajendra were also present. The party is set to contest alone for 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Currently, it has four MPs in Telangana.
In Chhattisgarh meeting, CM Vishnu Deo and other leaders were present at this meeting. Discussions on new faces in Janjgir, Mahasamund, Raipur, Kanker and Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seats were held; fielding of Schedule Tribes (ST) in four seats was also done. Additionally, separate discussions on the lost seats of Korba and Bastar in 2019 were also held.
In the Rajasthan core group meeting, a discussion was held regarding all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Candidates can be declared for 7-9 seats in the first list by the party, ANI report stated.
BJP to announce 100 candidates by month end?
The party will release its first list of at least 100 candidates for the April-May Lok Sabha elections by the end of this month, reports have stated. As per the Economic Times report, the list will have names of candidates from seats in states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. According to the ET report, for this year’s polls, the party has identified about 160 seats that it deems weak and thus organised early campaigning and public contact programmes over the past year. Sources have also said that the first list of finalised candidates is expected to include names of some Union ministers as well.
Yuvraj Singh to contest from Gurdaspur seat?
Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh will be contesting on a BJP ticket from the Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency, a report by Times of India stated. Currently, Sunny Deol is the BJP MP from Gurdaspur. Reports have also stated that the former cricketer will be replacing Deol in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The speculations of Singh joining the BJP and contesting from the seat came after his recent meeting with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari earlier this month
2019 General elections
In the 2019 seven-phase general elections which were held between 11 April and 19 May, the BJP won 303 seats with a record 37.36 per cent vote share, which was the highest vote share by a political party since the 1989 general election. Overall, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 353 seats, Congress won 52 seats while the United Progressive Alliance won 91 seats in the election.
Amit Shah in Madhya Pradesh today
Amit Shah will visit Madhya Pradesh today to review the BJP’s preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the state party unit chief VD Sharma said as reported by PTI. Shah will visit Gwalior, Khajuraho and Bhopal and will be holding meetings with party functionaries. He will also be addressing a public meeting. Sharma has expressed confidence that the BJP will win all 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP.
PM Modi’s 370-seat confidence
Prime Minister Modi in his reply to the motion of thanks on the President’s address launched one of the strongest attacks on Congress as he also hit out at the INDIA bloc over its “disturbed alignment.” He expressed confidence that people will give the BJP a renewed mandate of over 370 seats in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls based on the work done for all sections of society. “I don’t go into numbers, but I can see the mood of the country. It will make the NDA cross 400, and the BJP will definitely get 370 seats…The third term will be about taking very big decisions,” the Prime Minister had said.
(With inputs from ANI, PTI)
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Published: 25 Feb 2024, 07:47 AM IST