The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to retain power in 2022 Assembly polls, has taken up an informal exercise of gauging the mood of different communities and sub-sects within castes so that it can devise appropriate poll strategies.
Said a prominent leader in the BJP State unit, “We are trying to assess the political inclination and mood of different sub groups within Lingayats, different communities within OBCs, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. A similar exercise will also be carried out among another dominant community of Vokkaligas besides minorities.”
This preliminary exercise is being done to help prepare a roadmap for the campaign in a ‘methodical and pragmatic manner’. It will be a ‘status report’ of sorts based on which macro and micro-level strategies to woo specific communities would be worked. The party believes this kind of targeted approach is crucial to tilt the balance in the next Assembly elections.
According another party leaders, BJP is also looking into organisational issues related to micro management, such as forming booth-level committees and appointing page pramukhs (party workers in charge for a particular page of a voters’ list comprising roughly 30 to 40 names).
Targeting beneficiaries
In addition to this, party leaders have already announced that they are trying to assess the number of beneficiaries of various Union and State Government schemes in each of the Assembly constituencies. After collating this data, the party wants to reach out to them in different groups that would be formed on the basis of schemes.
In fact, the party is planning to hold Assembly constituency-wise meetings of such beneficiaries under various schemes in different groups. A similar strategy of targeting abharthi samooh (beneficiary groups) was used in Uttar Pradesh polls by the BJP.
Ministerial expansion in May?
Speculation is rife in the BJP State unit that the much-awaited ministerial expansion may take place sometime in May first or second week. While clarity on the nature of expansion is yet to emerge, leaders are of the view that four to five ministers may be dropped. But any clarity would emerge only after party Central leadership holds a meeting in this regard in Delhi.
BJP national president J.P. Nadda recently announced that he would hold a meeting in Delhi soon on issues related to Karnataka Ministerial expansion.
