In an indication that it is not certain of repeating its performance in the next Lok Sabha elections in 2024, the BJP will look to Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the LS, to make for the loss of seats in other states.
A hint that the saffron party expected loss of seats in the next LS polls was dropped by the UP BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary during a party event at Gonda town, about 150 kilometres from here on Saturday.
''Lok Sabha chunav mein agar anya rajyon mein thoda nuksan hota hai to uski bharpai hame UP se karni hogi'' ( we will have to make up from UP if we lose a few seats in some other states), Chaudhary said while addressing party workers at the event.
He said that the opposition parties were now trying to forge an alliance to counter the BJP in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. ''The opposition will make every effort to deviate the attention of the people from ideological issues and so we must be careful and alert,'' the state BJP president said.
Chaudhary also claimed that the opposition parties were getting help from some ''foreign powers'' without elaborating.
BJP, which had won 64 seats in UP in the 2019 LS polls, has decided to focus on the seats which it had lost in the last elections. BJP had lost seats especially in the eastern and the Muslim dominated central regions in the state to the Samajwadi Party-BSP alliance. Congress had won the lone seat of Raebareli in 2019 LS polls. Of the 16 seats it had lost in the previous elections, the BJP managed to wrest two seats-Azamgarh and Rampur-in the LS by-polls held last year.
Setting a target to win all the 80 seats in UP, the BJP has deputed its senior leaders to monitor the preparation and reach out to the electorate on the seats it had lost in 2019. BJP national general secretary (organisation) B.L.Santosh had recently held meetings with the UP unit leaders here to take stock of the preparedness for the next elections.
The state BJP leaders here, however, rejected assertions that the party expected to lose seats in states other than UP saying that the voting pattern was not the same for the state and LS elections.