After LS elections, BJP gears up for ‘Mission 70’ in Assembly

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 28

Buoyed by the recent Lok Sabha election results, the BJP is gearing up for “Mission 70” in the Haryana Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in October.

Even as other political  parties, especially  the Congress, are yet to get their act together, the BJP is already in election mode, gearing up for Assembly elections with a clear eye on winning 70 of the 90 Assembly seats.

Party sources said with over 58 per cent vote share and lead in 80 of the 90 Assembly segments in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, it stood a fair chance of  winning 70 seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections.

“The party is fully geared up to win over 70 seats in the Assembly elections if Lok Sabha trends are any indication. The BJP’s performance in the 2019 Assembly elections will be far better than its performance in the 2014 Assembly elections, when it won 47 seats,” said Ram Bilas Sharma, Education Minister.

As state BJP president, he had led the party to a win in the 2014 Assembly elections. The BJP, which had been a junior partner in other governments in the state,  won 47 seats in 2014 and formed its first government on its own. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, the party had won seven of the 10 seats.

This time, the BJP was the first party to prepare the ground for Assembly elections before the declaration of Lok Sabha election results on May 23. The party held its first brainstorming session of senior leaders in Rohtak on May 20, followed by a meeting of the BJP Legislature Party in Chandigarh the next day.

It was at the second meeting that broad contours of the strategy  for the Assembly elections were chalked out. It was resolved to form  a committee to work out the election manifesto for Assembly elections.

After the end of the  model code of conduct on May 26, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had been quite proactive in asking the bureaucracy to speed up development work, including major projects, across the state.

Meanwhile,  MLAs had already been asked to give a list of ongoing  development work, including Chief Minister’s announcements, which could be completed  before the  model code of conduct came into force for Assembly elections in about three months.