BJP Gears Up for Third Straight Term with Aggressive 2024 Lok Sabha Strategy

The Bharatiya Janata Party intends to secure a clear majority and rule India for a third consecutive term in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Several strategies have already been in the works to achieve the ambitious goal. 

Strategy:

• Contest more seats: Fight on more seats compared to 2019, seeking to expand reach and solidify dominance.
• Early candidate announcement: Declare candidates by the end of January or early February 2024, ahead of the election code of conduct.
• Big names in first list: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, and Home Minister Amit Shah likely to lead the initial candidate roster.
• Focus on underperforming seats: Prioritize 164 seats where BJP either narrowly lost or faced defeat in 2019, dedicating efforts to improve performance. Big leaders such as Amit Shah have received the list of such seats to work on the strategy. BJP has divided these seats into C and D groups. 80 seats have been divided into two ranks and 45 ministers have been given responsibility for the same. 
• Leveraging lost allies: The departure of key coalition partners in the past five years presents an opportunity for the BJP to potentially contest additional seats in states like Punjab, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, where they previously shared space with now-allied parties. In 2019, BJP won 3 out of 13 in Punjab, 25 out of 48 in Maharashtra, 17 out of 40 in Bihar, and 5 out of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. 

Comparison with 2019:

In 2019, the BJP contested 436 of 543 seats, winning 303. This time, they are likely to field candidates in more constituencies. In 2019, the BJP fought alongside allies in Punjab, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. Without those allies, the BJP could potentially contest more seats in these states.