WHEN FORMER chief minister of Karnataka B S Yediyurappa was inducted into the top bodies of the BJP – Parliamentary Board and Central Election Committee – the message was clear: the BJP needed his clout and popularity to face the next elections in the state. During his visit to Karnataka last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly showed warmth and affection for the veteran leader. At a programme in Mangalore, the Prime Minister took along Yediyurappa – who did not have an invitation from the organisers to be seated on the dais – to the stage and made him sit on the front row, next to Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot. Party insiders say Modi always had respect for Yediyurappa and had made it a point that the Lingayat leader who had left the BJP in 2012 returned to the party in 2014.
Preparing Pitch
While Congress organised a protest rally against the government over price rise in Delhi on Sunday, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar spent his weekend in Raebareli, the Gandhi family bastion. Tomar, who had worked in Uttar Pradesh as BJP’s general secretary in-charge of the state, has been tasked by his party to work in the Raebareli cluster, which includes three other parliamentary constituencies – Ambedkar Nagar, Shravasti and Lalganj – to prepare ground for the party’s win in 2024. This is as part of BJP’s focus to win 144 seats where the party had lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. During Tomar’s two-day visit, one of the engagements was a “tiffin meeting” with local BJP workers. During such meetings, everyone carries his own food, said a close aide of Tomar.
Taking Stock
LAST WEEKEND, senior BJP leaders held a meeting at the party headquarters to make an assessment on the governance process and the status of development projects in party-ruled states. Although the meeting was not attended by the top BJP leaders, there were discussions on the popularity of the BJP chief ministers. Apparently, internal surveys indicated that not many of the chief ministers enjoy such popularity that would make the party’s mission of returning to power in the poll-bound states a cakewalk. So, most of the attendees in the meeting – mainly from the states that are going to polls before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections – were of the view that going to polls with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face would be the best bet. But there were also apprehensions that this strategy had not worked in many Assembly elections since 2014. Tougher times ahead, the party leaders concluded, according to sources.