BJP survey to determine its winnability in Bengal

BJP has started a survey in 18 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal to determine where it has the best potential to win in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The move is aimed towards achieving the target of winning 23 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal set by BJP president Amit Shah. Speaking to DH a senior BJP leader said that in almost all of the 18 seats BJP was in the third position in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and they will be classified in four categories as per their winning potential.

“ The 18 seats will be classified as A plus, A, B and C category as per their winning potentials. However, the Asansol and Darjeeling Lok Sabha seats will not be part of the survey as we are confident of retaining the two seats,” the BJP leader said.

BJP sources revealed that the 18 Lok Sabha seats are located in the districts of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Malda, North 24 Paraganas, East Bardhaman, Howrah, Hooghly, Birbhum, Jhargram and West Midnapore.

According to sources, the classification of the related seats into four categories will be done on the basis of four criterion such as BJP’s organisational strength in the seat, its organisational weakness in the seat, the geographical location of the seat and the potential candidates to be fielded from there.

“ Our party president has set a target of 23 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. Currently, we are working on 32 seats and there is a special focus on some of them. However, we can’t reveal the number and names of the seats due to strategic reasons,” Arvind Menon, BJP observer in West Bengal told DH.

BJP sources said that survey is being conducted keeping in mind the “political diversity” of Bengal where each Lok Sabha seat often has its distinct political issues.

“ It will not be prudent to frame our strategy for Bengal with a mindset that similar political issues prevail in all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state,” the BJP leader said.