New Delhi: In preparation for the upcoming general elections next year, it is believed that the BJP has strategically devised a plan to conduct public gatherings featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These gatherings will take place in 160 Lok Sabha constituencies where the party faced narrow defeats during the previous elections.
It is anticipated that on September 1, JP Nadda, the head of the BJP, will conduct an assessment of the ongoing Lok Sabha Pravas Yojana. This initiative involves Union Ministers taking responsibility for fostering more than 160 vulnerable parliamentary constituencies that the party failed to secure in the 2019 elections. However, no official confirmation regarding this meeting has been provided.
The party has pinpointed 160 Lok Sabha constituencies nationwide where BJP contenders were unsuccessful in the 2019 elections despite putting up a strong and competitive effort.
Upon thorough analysis, it was discovered that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured victory in 224 Lok Sabha constituencies during the 2019 Lok Sabha Election, garnering more than 50 percent of the total vote share.
Among these victories, Uttar Pradesh played a pivotal role by contributing the highest number of seats at 40, closely followed by Gujarat with 26 seats, Madhya Pradesh with 25 seats, Rajasthan with 23 seats, and Karnataka with 22 seats. Notably, a majority in the 543-member Lok Sabha requires 272 seats, a figure the BJP fell just 48 seats short of achieving on its own in the 2019 election. This fact strongly indicates that, even in the face of opposition alliances, the task of unseating the saffron party from its strongholds will be far from effortless.
A senior member of the party, who wished to remain anonymous, mentioned that the BJP not only attempted to organize public rallies for the Prime Minister in the identified vulnerable Lok Sabha constituencies but also initiated special campaigns to bolster the chances of victory for BJP candidates, capitalizing on the immense popularity of the PM.
With the goal of securing 400 seats, the BJP organized rallies for the PM by combining two or three constituencies. Sophisticated arrangements were made to broadcast the rallies on larger screens at various locations. To manage the tasks concerning the 160 constituencies, the party constituted a three-member team of experienced leaders—Sunil Bansal, Tarun Chugh, and Vinod Tawade.
The scale of the BJP’s triumph in 2019 serves as a clear indication that the party not only solidified the achievements it attained in 2014 but also managed to extend its support beyond its conventional foundation.
When a political party secures victory in an election with an increased proportion of the total votes (as seen in the BJP’s rise from 31.1% to 37.4% in 2019), it typically garners support from a wider spectrum of voters. Nevertheless, an examination of the National Election Studies 2019, a survey conducted reveals that the BJP achieved disproportionate progress primarily among demographic segments where it traditionally lacked substantial backing.
The party effectively addressed concerns within the Dalit community regarding various matters, such as changes to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act and instances of inter-caste violence at the local level. Notably, Dalit support for the BJP deepened in this election, with 34% of Dalits voting for the BJP in 2019 compared to 24% in 2014.
A similar trend was observed among the upper Other Backward Classes (OBCs), as the difference in BJP support between lower and upper OBCs decreased from 12 percentage points in 2014 to 7 percentage points in this election, mainly due to increased support from upper OBCs. However, the BJP’s share of the Muslim vote remained relatively unchanged at 8%, representing the only demographic where the party did not make significant gains.
Agencies

KR Desk