Every 3 months, BJP to survey ground situation, assess its position in all 80 Lok Sabha seats of UP

“The survey will cover three main aspects—the BJP’s position on the ground, the political and other issues dominating among the people, and the position of the Opposition parties vis-à-vis every Lok Sabha seat,” a BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity.

“It will include collecting opinions of voters on the performance of the BJP governments at the Centre and state, the performance of our sitting MPs in their respective constituencies, other potential candidates of the BJP in every constituency, and also the status of the Opposition parties,” the senior leader added.

According to the party sources, BJP’s position in a constituency will be gauged by knowing the opinion of the local voters about the policies and welfare programmes of the Central and the state governments, the functioning of local administration, public connect and the reputation of the local BJP MP etc.

The party will also collect names of other possible candidates as per the local social and caste equations, they said.

“The BJP government is running a large number of welfare schemes and several crore people in UP have benefited from these schemes. Besides feedback on these schemes, the impact of the issues raised by the Opposition parties will also be assessed,” said a senior leader.

“For example, the Ram temple is coming up in Ayodhya, and the party is hopeful that when the temple will be opened for devotees in a grand ceremony, the people’s mood will be in favour of the BJP, thereby reducing the effect of the anti-incumbency. The possible effect of the Ram temple and the development of other temples in the state will also be assessed in the survey. Likewise, India’s growing reputation in the world and the impact of good governance measures will also be assessed,” said the BJP leader.

Another BJP leader associated with election management in the party said, “Such survey will continue till the elections, and the survey team will submit a report of each Lok Sabha seat after every three months. As the political issues may keep changing with upcoming policy decisions of the government, the updated reports will be prepared in the surveys,” the leader said, adding that two months before the elections, the party will conduct a separate survey of party workers in every district and compare the findings of all the reports before reaching to any final conclusion about the selection of candidates and the issues to be raised by the party during the election campaign.

Uttar Pradesh is a crucial state for the BJP as the state sends 80 members to Lok Sabha. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won 62 seats and its ally Apna Dal(S) two. The BSP won 10 seats in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP), which won only five seats. The Congress got one seat of Raebareli.

“With the SP and BSP ending their alliance, and BSP chief Mayawati announcing that her party would contest the Lok Sabha elections alone, there is a high possibility of the BJP winning more seats from UP next year,” said a BJP leader.

The party leader also discounted the challenge from the SP-RLD alliance, saying BJP’s influence in west UP – the political area of the RLD – is still strong. “We won those seats where RLD has influence because of the Jat population. We are leaving no stones unturned to win maximum seats and hence the survey work has been started one year before the elections,” said the leader.

In January this year at the BJP’s state executive meeting, the party’s leadership said that it would try to win all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP and termed it ‘Mission Perfect-80’.