01-16-2008, 11:42 PM
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>BJP zooms in on 297 âwinnableâ seats </span>
SANJAY K. JHA
New Delhi, Jan. 15: The BJP has identified 297 parliamentary seats for special attention in the next general election. These are the seats the party won once or more in elections since 1989.
This âexcitingâ figure has convinced the party that it can come close to the halfway mark of 272 in Parliament on its own. The subject dominated the first meeting of the BJPâs 19-member central election management committee held today at the party headquarters.
Sushma Swaraj gave the figure after the meeting but did not provide the seatsâ geographical distribution.
She added that even if only the elections since 1991 were counted, the number of âwinnableâ seats fell just by six to 291. The 1989 polls were a one-off, with the National Front, Left and the BJP joining forces to defeat the Congress.
In the 189 seats the BJP never won in any past poll, it plans to try and form alliances.
The âwinnableâ seats have been classified as A+, A, B+, etc. For instance, the 43 seats the party has never lost since 1991 have been graded A+ (A plus). Some it has won twice or thrice â and among those it has won only once, some have always given it a large share of votes.
In the coming weeks, the party will size up the 297 seats. The central poll committee will get the profile of 138 of these from its sitting MPs, while a team of 30 will be formed to study the remaining 159 within a fixed timetable.
This team will survey these seats, collecting electoral data, assessing the reasons for past victories and defeats, and pinpointing probable candidates and issues that can sway local sentiments.
Also, the central poll committee has decided to form sub-committees with specific briefs. One will be called the âdecisions implementation groupâ; four others will respectively draft the manifesto, deal with campaign material, identify issues and interact with the media.
Party president Rajnath Singh, who heads the central poll committee, is to announce the sub-panels in the next few days. Their members will be drawn largely from the central panel, but Rajnath has been authorised to include people from outside for specific tasks.
The jumbo central panel was set up after some lobbies protested that a coterie close to L.K. Advani was drawing up the entire poll strategy.
But a 19-member body is unwieldy, and the leadership felt that particular tasks needed smaller groups, made up of people with expertise in those specific areas. So, the sub-committees are being formed with the option of inducting âoutsidersâ, whose dominance had earlier caused heartburn among senior leaders.
Now the seniors, who are in the parent body, will have the satisfaction of overseeing the reports of the sub-panels.
Sushma said a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance had been called on January 22.
http://publication.samachar.com/pub_arti...id=1086542
SANJAY K. JHA
New Delhi, Jan. 15: The BJP has identified 297 parliamentary seats for special attention in the next general election. These are the seats the party won once or more in elections since 1989.
This âexcitingâ figure has convinced the party that it can come close to the halfway mark of 272 in Parliament on its own. The subject dominated the first meeting of the BJPâs 19-member central election management committee held today at the party headquarters.
Sushma Swaraj gave the figure after the meeting but did not provide the seatsâ geographical distribution.
She added that even if only the elections since 1991 were counted, the number of âwinnableâ seats fell just by six to 291. The 1989 polls were a one-off, with the National Front, Left and the BJP joining forces to defeat the Congress.
In the 189 seats the BJP never won in any past poll, it plans to try and form alliances.
The âwinnableâ seats have been classified as A+, A, B+, etc. For instance, the 43 seats the party has never lost since 1991 have been graded A+ (A plus). Some it has won twice or thrice â and among those it has won only once, some have always given it a large share of votes.
In the coming weeks, the party will size up the 297 seats. The central poll committee will get the profile of 138 of these from its sitting MPs, while a team of 30 will be formed to study the remaining 159 within a fixed timetable.
This team will survey these seats, collecting electoral data, assessing the reasons for past victories and defeats, and pinpointing probable candidates and issues that can sway local sentiments.
Also, the central poll committee has decided to form sub-committees with specific briefs. One will be called the âdecisions implementation groupâ; four others will respectively draft the manifesto, deal with campaign material, identify issues and interact with the media.
Party president Rajnath Singh, who heads the central poll committee, is to announce the sub-panels in the next few days. Their members will be drawn largely from the central panel, but Rajnath has been authorised to include people from outside for specific tasks.
The jumbo central panel was set up after some lobbies protested that a coterie close to L.K. Advani was drawing up the entire poll strategy.
But a 19-member body is unwieldy, and the leadership felt that particular tasks needed smaller groups, made up of people with expertise in those specific areas. So, the sub-committees are being formed with the option of inducting âoutsidersâ, whose dominance had earlier caused heartburn among senior leaders.
Now the seniors, who are in the parent body, will have the satisfaction of overseeing the reports of the sub-panels.
Sushma said a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance had been called on January 22.
http://publication.samachar.com/pub_arti...id=1086542