With an eye on the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha election, BJP chief JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with senior BJP leaders on Tuesday to discuss a strategy to boost its prospects in 144 seats that are not its stronghold. The meeting was attended by over 25 Union ministers, including Bhupender Yadav, Giriraj Singh, Smriti Irani, Parshottam Rupala and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, PTI reported.
The BJP had won 303 of the 543 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The 144 constituencies that came up for discussion in the BJP meet are where the saffron party lost in 2019.
However, a few winning seats were also part of the list due to difficult demographic and regional factors, BJP sources told PTI.
The 144 seats are mainly in the states of West Bengal, Telangana, Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier this year, the BJP leadership had divided the 144 seats into clusters and appointed one Union minister as their in-charge.
Another set of ministers was sent to assess the political ground situation by visiting all assembly segments within these constituencies, PTI reported.
Reports about the work undertaken by various ministers who have been assigned three to four such 'weak' Lok Sabha seats were presented at the meeting on Tuesday.
The ministers who were assigned the 144 seats have done a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of the BJP's position in these constituencies and identified steps to be taken to ensure its victory in the 2024 elections, BJP sources told PTI.
The saffron party has also drawn a detailed blueprint on these constituencies, which include information on religion, caste, geography, inclination of voters and the reasons behind it.
With BJP looking for a third consecutive term in the Centre in 2024 amid a bid by Opposition parties to unite against it, the saffron party has been working to ramp up its booth-level presence and reach out to various communities.
(With inputs from PTI)