NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP is all set to contest this year’s Madhya Pradesh elections with incumbent Shivraj Singh Chouhan as Chief Minister, besides mounting in the state the first-of-its-kind micro-booth management exercise that promises to rival even the Gujarat model credited with the party’s historic December 2022 win.
Starting Tuesday until March 24, the BJP will conduct a pan-Madhya Pradesh drive across the party’s 65,000 booths, with each booth committee tasked with drafting a “poll action plan”.
“The drive will arm and aid each of the 65,000 BJP booths to formulate poll action plans, which will be implemented on the ground in the run-up to state elections, a senior BJP functionary said today.
Of the 65,000 booths, the BJP has digitised 62,000 with all data points available on handy dashboards.
During the drive, each booth committee will be handed the voter list of that booth, data of the past four elections (2013, 2018 Assembly; 2014, 2019 Lok Sabha), a list of area influencers, and a list of booth-level beneficiaries of government schemes.
“Based on data shared, each booth would need to make projections about vote shares, potential means of improvement over the 2018 state elections and challenges in attainment of party goals. This exercise is the largest booth management exercise ever attempted in the country and seeks cadre mobilisation like never before,” BJP sources said.
The party has set a goal of “Abki baar 200 paar”, with an over 51 per cent vote share this year. In the 2018 state elections, the BJP was restricted to 107 seats in a House of 230 members. The Congress had formed the government with the support of the SP, BSP and independents until a rebellion by Jyotiraditya Scindia installed a BJP dispensation in 2020.
“This year, we will not fight with complacency or comfort. Last time we had miscalculated our prospects,” BJP sources said.
On Chouhan as CM, the sources said “Chouhan may be facing a fatigue factor but has the capacity to rebrand himself”.
Chouhan’s ability “not to create shock negatives even among rivals” is an advantage, said BJP leaders at a time when the party has not thought twice before replacing sitting CMs (as in Tripura, Gujarat and Karnataka).
The BJP also hopes to gain from the presence of the BSP and AAP in Madhya Pradesh. Apart from the recently announced the Laadli Behna Yojana to provide Rs 1,000 monthly assistance to economically backward and middle-income group women, the BJP will make Madhya Pradesh’s 7.3 per cent agricultural growth rate (the highest in India) a major poll plank.