BJP supporters during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public meeting for Lok Sabha elections, in Agra, on Thursday.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Following the first phase of voting in Lok Sabha Elections 2024, the BJP is now gearing for the second phase with a renewed focus on women voters and "increasing" the voter turnout in the 88 seats going to polls.
Among the 102 seats that went to the polls in the first phase, the voter turnout percentage decreased in at least 93 seats compared to the 2019 numbers. The BJP has stated that it is not concerned about this decline, stating that women voters have shown significant support for the party.
“This is a long-drawn election, the polling is taking place in the middle of peak summer, so the numbers are bound to fall,” a senior saffron party leader, entrusted with campaign work, told DH.
For the BJP, which won at least 40 of the 102 seats last term, the polling percentage fell in a whopping 39 seats. Comparatively, for the Congress, of the 15 seats among the 102 that it had won, there was a drop in turnout in 12 seats.
“Low voter turnout never hurts the BJP as badly as it hurts the Congress, because the core BJP voter does not crossvote. The silver lining for us, as per information coming in, is that more women have come out to vote, and women are known to prefer the prime minister at the poll booth,” the leader said.
Leaders said that the challenge now is to ensure that voting percentages do not fall like it did in the first phase.
In the 88 seats that go to the polls in the second phase, as many as 60 per cent pose a triangular contest for the BJP, as per internal party assessments, and party sources say that the focus is on ensuring women voters reach the booth.
The party's focus is also moving from the booth to the panna (pages of voter list), said those involved. Booth in-charges have been communicated to sharpen their panna (voter list page) outreach.
A panna usually has the names of 10-12 families and sometimes 32-36 voters. The focus is sharpened especially in states where the BJP has typically performed well, such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana etc.
A senior party leader from Madhya Pradesh said that the booths are categorised as per their performance parameters, and the focus is on ensuring that each booth improves its position.
“A booth which is in the ‘C’ category should come up to the ‘B’ category and so on… Once we win the booth, the rest is easy,” the leader said.
Besides the dipping poll percentages, BJP leaders highlighted another worry: the Opposition's accusation that the BJP seeks 400 seats to change the Constitution. This charge, particularly voiced by leaders like Jyoti Mirdha, Lallu Singh, Arun Govil, and Anant Kumar Hegde, has raised fears among Dalit, SC, and Muslim communities across the country.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, alongside his speeches at rallies, released a video on Thursday urging voters to support Congress to protect the Constitution. The shift in the prime minister’s messaging tone, notably observed since Banaswadi in Rajasthan where he spoke critically about Muslims, reflects a strategic adjustment.