BJP to focus on 97,000 booths, reach out with welfare schemes
“The party has decided to focus on 97,000 booths to strengthen organisational base and through it proactively take to people the welfare schemes like Ladki Bahin Yojana and electricity waiver to farmers,” Danve added.
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The BJP has convened a conclave on July 21 in Pune, which will be addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
With a few months left for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, the BJP on Thursday began its two-day meeting to review the party’s prospects in the 288 seats in the state.
Addressing mediapersons after the meeting, senior leader and former union minister Raosaheb Danve said, “It was a review meeting. We have decided to contest the elections with our allies Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP. Regarding seat-sharing, it will be collectively discussed later with our alliance partners.”
“The party has decided to focus on 97,000 booths to strengthen organisational base and through it proactively take to people the welfare schemes like Ladki Bahin Yojana and electricity waiver to farmers,” Danve added.
The BJP has convened a conclave on July 21 in Pune, which will be addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
A core committee member, requesting anonymity, revealed, “Based on the ongoing process, state BJP believes it should contest at least 165 to 170 seats. The party already has 105 sitting MLAs. And in 55 to 65 seats, it narrowly missed victory in the last polls and is stronger compared to allies.”
Union Ministers Bhupendra Yadav and Ashvini Vaishnaw, who are incharge and and co-incharge of Maharashtra respectively, were present throughout the meeting along with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, other senior cabinet ministers.
Highly placed sources in the party revealed, “The meeting was very significant as core committee at length deliberated and assessed each and every Assembly constituency region-wise. Half of the the 288 constituencies were assessed on Thursday and the remaining will be reviewed tomorrow “.
While BJP has in principle announced its decision to continue the pre-poll alliance with Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and NCP led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, the party believes it will have to strive harder to consolidate its own organisation to retain the edge in Maharashtra.
A senior functionary requesting anonymity said, “With Assembly polls in mind, the two-day core committee meeting has been convened to assess the strength and weakness of each of three constituents (of Mahayuti) in all 288 seats.”
After the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, this is the second meeting of the core committee.
In the general elections, BJP faced a huge setback in the state as it managed to win just nine of the 28 seats it contested. The Mahayuti alliance won 17 seats as compared to Maha Vikas Aghadi which secured 30 seats.
Reckoning the challenges ahead of the Assembly polls, central leadership has deployed Yadav and Vaishnaw to oversee the state polls. Interestingly, Yadav, known as a tough task master, was the incharge of Maharashtra Assembly polls in 2019.
In the 2019 polls, BJP was in alliance with undivided Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray. The BJP won the highest number of seats — 105, followed by Shiv Sena with 56. The Congress won 44 seats and NCP 54. However, Thackeray severed ties with BJP to forge alliance with then rival Congress and NCP. Over the years, the political equations in the state has drastically altered. In 2023, BJP along with Shiv Sena led by Shinde formed government in state. In July 2023, it embraced the NCP led by Ajit Pawar.
The seat-sharing with two alliance partners will be a daunting task for BJP as both Shinde Sena and NCP have also started asserting its claim on more seats.
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