CHANDIGARH: With less than ten days left for the Assembly elections in Punjab, the BJP is planning aggressive campaigning, focusing on around three dozen seats out of the 73 it is contesting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address rallies at Jalandhar (February 14), Pathankot (February 16) and Abohar (February 17), covering all three regions of the state.
Punjab BJP general secretary Subash Sharma claimed PM Modi’s rallies will change the political atmosphere in the state and boost the confidence of all the BJP-PLC-SAD (S) alliance candidates. After playing second fiddle to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for over two decades and now fighting the polls with new alliance partners, the saffron party is focusing on 35 seats which are primarily in the urban areas of the state and have large number of Hindu and Scheduled Caste (SC) voters.
It is contesting 73 seats primarily for optics. Hindus comprise approximately 38 per cent of Punjab's population but are not a consolidated vote bank as their votes usually are divided among all parties. The party is banking on Hindu and SC votes besides the anti-incumbency faced by some of the sitting MLAs.
"The constituencies that the BJP has identified have around 60 per cent Hindu population. The BJP state leadership has already told its district leaders to focus on these seats. BJP leaders are working with like-minded organisations to cement the party’s chances on these seats," said a party leader on condition of anonymity.
The BJP already has the advantage of having fought on 23 of these seats when the party was in alliance with the SAD. The saffron party is now also concentrating on 12 other seats which it thinks might go in it’s favour.
In focus
Majha region: Pathankot, Bhoa, Sujanpur, Dina Nagar, Amritsar (North), Batala, Gurdaspur
Doaba region: Phagwara, Jalandhar (Central), Jalandhar (North), Jalandhar (West), Mukeria, Dasuya, Hoshiarpur, Garhshankar
Malwa region: Khanna, Rajpura, Ludhiana (South), Ludhiana (East), Atamnagar, Ropar, Dera Bassi, Mansa, Bathinda (Urban), Sangrur, Abohar, Fazilka, Ferozepur (City)