BJP to wrap up Viksit Bharat, Gaon Chalo Abhiyaan by Feb end; senior ministers urged to contest and win Lok Sabha seats

New Delhi: With an aim to finish its first leg of campaigning before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are announced, the Bharatiya Janata Party has asked its leaders to finish its poll-centred campaigns like 'Viksit Bharat' and 'Gaon Chalo Abhiyaan' by the end of February.

The party is also fielding several BJP Rajya Sabha MPs and senior ministers such as Nirmala Sitharaman, Bhupender Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw to fight elections this term.

The 'Viksit Bharat' campaign, through which the BJP is going to beneficiaries in each booth to collect their data and then sign them up for schemes they are eligible for, was launched on November 15 last year.

Under the 'Gaon Chalo Abhiyan', the party had deputed teams of ‘tolis’ of 12 lakh workers to carry out a ‘pravaas’ or overnight stay in all villages in their respective regions.

A party general secretary, who did not wish to be named, said that leaders were asked to finish these two campaigns by the end of the month.

“Before the poll schedule is out, we need to be prepared,” said the leader, adding that this is from a lesson they have learnt from the party’s debacle in Karnataka.

In addition to that, senior BJP leaders in the Rajya Sabha may be asked to take a direct route to parliament by contending LS polls.

Senior ministers of the Modi cabinet who have been in the Rajya Sabha and whose terms are either ending or coming to an end have been asked to name at least three seats that they are comfortable fighting elections from.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman could contest from the Bangalore South seat, while IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, whose Rajya Sabha term ended on Wednesday, could be fielded from Bangalore Central.

Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw could contest from Rajasthan, labour minister Bhupender Yadav from Haryana, V Muraleedharan from Kerala’s Attingal, and education minister Dharmendra Pradhan from Odisha, sources said. P Muralidhar could also be asked to contest said sources.

Two names missing in the list of Rajya Sabha nominees released by the party on Sunday gives credence to this theory as Rajiv Chandrashekhar and Anil Baluni were not renominated amidst reports that the two may be asked to contest LS polls.

The party, in line with its tradition, is likely to field new faces in atleast 30% of the 543 seats in the coming elections, a general secretary of the party said.

The BJP has been holding meetings across all its 543 Lok Sabha segments as well as all assembly seats in the last few days. Sitting MPs of the party and MLAs of the party that come under the MP seats, as well as senior leaders in the seats where the party does not have an MP have been part of these meetings, per the general secretary quoted above.

Meanwhile, the BJP on Sunday announced that it is nominating RPN Singh, former Congress leader who joined the party in January 2022, party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi and former Haryana MLA Subhash Barala from among the 14 seats from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

The BJP has also nominated Narayan Krishnasha Bhandage from Karnataka, Dharmsheela Gupta and Bhim Singh in Bihar, Raja Devendra Pratap Singh in Chhattisgarh, Mahendra Bhatt in Uttarakhand, and Samik Bhattacharya in West Bengal.

Apart from Singh and Trivedi, the party's other names from UP are Sadhna Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Sangita Balwant, and Navin Jain.