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Journalism of Courage
A BJP in-house survey has placed the party in a comfortable position in 119 constituencies, which go to the polls in the first two phases.
Of the 182 seats the party is contesting in the 279 that go to polls in the first two phases, the survey forecasts a tough fight for 63 candidates. The BJP had 95 members in the last Lok Sabha from these constituencies. Of these, 16 are facing serious difficulty due to anti-incumbency factor. The party can draw solace from the fact that on the whole, reports indicate a gain of 24 seats.
Sources say the survey was carried out by 547 election assistants, who have been posted to plan and oversee electioneering in various constituencies. The election assistants, called ‘‘chunav sahayaks’’ in BJP parlance, are full-timers drawn from the RSS and party ranks for a limited period. They have been posted outside their home states. The election assistants have based their reports on the feedback from Sangh Parivar cadre, new voters, women and undecided voters.
The party has divided its seats in A and B categories. A total of 66 party nominees have been slotted in the A-group, with 35 classified as B-grade in the first phase. The BJP is contesting 101 of 142 seats in the first phase. In the second phase, 53 BJP candidates have made it to the A-category, while 28 are in the B-group.
The leaders in demand for public meetings are Vajpayee, Advani, party chief M. Venkaiah Naidu, HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, general secretary Pramod Mahajan, Health Minister Sushma Swaraj, MP Chief Minister Uma Bharati, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Law Minister Arun Jaitley, general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh and former UP CM Kalyan Singh.
