The BJP is also keeping a close watch on Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra and has even dubbed it ‘Bharat Todo Yatra’ instead
With the end of campaigning for the Gujarat Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set its next target, and without wasting any time the party has lined up a series of high-level meetings with ministers and office bearers to discuss the preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
BJP National President J.P. Nadda has called a “massive” meeting of all national and state level office bearers of the party in the national capital on December 5 and 6 to discuss the strategy and preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well as the 2023 assembly elections in several states.
In the meeting, the party will also be discussing ways to take its policies and achievements to every city and village.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address the concluding session of the meeting virtually on December 6.
It is also being said that the party, while campaigning for Gujarat polls, has already started readying its ground for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant during Gujarat poll campaigning had even mentioned that “the 2024 elections are beginning from here (Gujarat assembly elections) itself”. Sawant, while addressing a gathering in Gujarat, has said that in 2024, the BJP is going to get more seats than before and Narendra Modi will become Prime Minister once again.
On social media as well, the party is sharing the achievements of Modi government – be it EWS flats for Jhuggi dwellers of Delhi, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Yojna, or the GST collection, the BJP is sharing all its achievements from the party’s social media handles. “This is a regular exercise by the BJP to keep posting about the developments and achievements of the government,” a party insider said.
The BJP is also keeping a close watch on Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra and has even dubbed it ‘Bharat Todo Yatra’ instead.
Days before the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi enters Rajasthan, the BJP has kickstarted its ‘Jan Aakrosh Yatra’, a mass contact programme that will cover 200 constituencies in the state ahead of next year’s assembly election.
Nadda also flagged off 51 ‘Jan Aakrosh Raths’ from Jaipur, which will travel across various assembly constituencies in the state.
BJP is also trying to consolidate its position among communities beyond its traditional vote bank.
On the road to the crucial elections in 2024, the BJP, which utilised new technologies and the country’s progress in the digital sector to emerge as the world’s largest political party with more than 18 crore members, has launched various programmes to expand its base to compensate for possible erosions.
Right after it came into power, it announced a series of initiatives to make the Scheduled Castes (SCs) — splintered by their loyalty to different parties — its loyal support base.
Prime Minister Modi personally steered a drive to signal the BJP’s commitment to Dalit icons, and paved way for Dalit leaders’ appointment on key posts, including the President of India, while the party started organising Dalit home visits and conducted several outreach programmes.
Similarly, to woo the OBC (Other Backward Classes) voters, the BJP inducted several OBC leaders in the Union Cabinet. The party also used Prime Minister Modi’s ‘backward’ status to garner support of the OBC voters.
According to a Lokniti-CSDS survey, the party’s OBC vote share has went up from 33 per cent in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections to 44 per cent in 2019.
