AHMEDABAD: Despite tall claims of some Gujarat BJP leaders that the party has no rival in the
upcoming Assembly polls, the ruling party is taking all precautions to avoid a repeat of 2017 when it had to content with a simple majority.
In the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, the party won 99 seats in 2017 against the 115 seats it had bagged in 2012. On the contrary, the opposition Congress improved its tally to 77 from the previous 61. The saffron party is expected to focus vigorously on the 16 seats which it had won narrowly.
A senior BJP leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: “We have drawn up an action plan to strengthen booths in the constituencies where the winning margin was less than 3,000 votes in 2017. Also, there is a parallel plan to bring strong Congress leaders into the party in these constituencies.”
Stating that booth management was the key to BJP’s victory, the party leader said they would seek the cooperation of social workers and religious leaders in the low-margin booths.
“A few days ago, party general secretary BL Santosh had a meeting with senior party leaders, in which RSS office-bearers were also present. A special strategy has been drawn up to retain the seats which were won by us with a narrow margin, and to win the seats which were bagged by Congress with a narrow margin,” the party leader said.
To retain its weaker seats, the saffron party has started constituency-wise surveys to assess the performance of the sitting MLAs, sentiments of voters and the problems faced by them. After the survey, which is being prepared by a private agency, a report will be handed over to the leadership.
Won by slender margins
57 seats Margin 5% or lower.
Congress: 30.
BJP: 25.
29 seats had less than 2% margin.