With an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP parliamentarians in Uttarakhand will travel to 23 assembly constituencies to find reasons why the party lost them in the 2022 state assembly polls.
Seven parliamentarians will stay there for 10 days and review the voter list at the booths of these constituencies to identify localities where BJP candidates polled fewer votes.
Party leaders in Uttarakhand have informed that following a direction from the Center, the Uttarakhand leadership has asked its five Lok Sabha and two Rajya Sabha members to reach out to the booth-level party workers and voters in 23 assembly seats that the BJP lost in 2022 and dwell upon causes for the loses.
All seven parliamentarians have been asked to stay in their allocated assembly constituencies from November 6 to November 17 and interact with the ground-level BJP workers to understand the cause of loss. According to Uttarakhand BJP president Mahendra Bhatt, the MPs have been asked to work out a plan, in association with local leaders, to ensure that party candidates win with more than 60 percent votes from these assembly segments in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“All the 22 assembly segments have been distributed to the seven-party MPs. They will visit the constituencies and find the reasons for our losses in the 2022 polls. Caste equations and other possible reasons will also be studied by the MPs” said Bhatt.
Bhatt claimed that BJP’s decision to review its loss in assembly polls will be followed by the meetings of the party’s SC-ST public representatives. All state BJP office bearers, block-level office bearers, and elected public representatives from the respective constituencies will take part in SC-ST meetings.
Interestingly, the Central leadership’s decision to review its 2022 losses came despite the fact that the party returned to power winning 47 seats in the 70-member state assembly. BJP had 44 percent against Congress party’s 37 percent vote share in the 2022 assembly election. The Congress party won 19 seats. Two each were won by the BSP and Independents.
It is significant that Union Minister of State for Defence and Tourism Ajay Bhatt, who is Lok Sabha MP from Nainital, has been assigned Khatima, Nanakmatta, Kichha, and Haldwani assembly seats while Tehri Lok Sabha MP Mala Rajya Lakshmi Shah will reach out to Pratap Nagar, Yamunotri and Chakrata assembly constituencies.
Former CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank will review the party’s losses in Haridwar Rural, Khanpur, and Jwalapur seats of the Hardiwar Lok Sabha constituency while Pauri MP Tirath Singh Rawat will travel to Dwarahat, Badrinath, and Almora assembly segments. Almora Lok Sabha MP Ajay Bhatt will make a 10-day stay in Pithoragarh, Lohaghat, and Dharchula assembly constituencies.
Besides Lok Sabha MPs, Rajya Sabha member Naresh Bansal has been assigned the responsibilities of Bhagwanpur, Piran Kaliyar, and Mangalore and Kalpana Saini will have to review the booth-level voter’s lists in Jhabreda, Luxar, and Jaspur assembly seats.