Chandigarh: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has switched to election mode in Haryana — due for assembly polls next year — with Union Home Minister Amit Shah scheduled to address a rally in the state at the end of the month, and more lined up for February.
While one rally was organised by state party leaders at Tosham in Bhiwani district this Sunday, the next is set for Gohana in Sonipat district on 29 January, which will be addressed by Shah, and then three rallies will follow to mark Ravidass Jayanti in Gurugram, Narwana and Yamuna Nagar in early February.
While the Lok Sabha poll is due in May next year, the assembly election in Haryana is scheduled to be held before October 2024.
For the past couple of days, a surge has been witnessed not only in the political activities of the ruling BJP in Haryana but also in organisational events. On the day of the Gohana rally in Haryana, Shah is expected to address another rally at Patiala in Punjab.
Shah’s Gohana rally is also scheduled at a time when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is set to conclude his Bharat Jodo Yatra, in Srinagar on 30 January. Also, Tosham, where the BJP held a rally this Sunday in which BJP state president O. P. Dhankar, agriculture minister J. P. Dalal and others participated, is the constituency of senior Congress leader Kiran Choudhry.
Admitting that the party has heightened political activities in Haryana with the upcoming elections in mind, Dhankar told ThePrint that Shah’s Gohana rally is part of the party’s Lok Sabha Pravas Yojana — an organisational plan under which 144 parliamentary constituencies across India have been selected by the BJP central leadership where victory has to be ensured in 2024.
“In Haryana, the BJP leadership has selected Sirsa, Rohtak and Sonipat seats under the Lok Sabha Pravas Yojna,” Dhankar added.
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Eyeing all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana
The Lok Sabha seat of Sirsa has long been the stronghold of Haryana’s Chautala family, of which Om Prakash Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) was a former chief minister.
Sonipat (which Shah is visiting on 29 January), as well as Rohtak, have mostly supported former Congress CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had swept all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. Prior to that, in 2014, Sirsa had gone to the INLD, while Deepender Hooda of the Congress emerged victorious in Rohtak. Sonipat was won by BJP’s Ramesh Chander Kaushik.
“The party has set a target of 4 lakh panna pramukhs by the end of January,” Dhankar told ThePrint.
Under the BJP’s strategy, a panna pramukh is head of one panna (leaf) of the voters’ list and the party assigns the person concerned the task of reaching out to people, and understanding their needs and aspirations, so that the party can deliver accordingly.
“In the next two months, verification of (the BJP) panna pramukhs will be done by calling them all on their phones so that no worker provides fake names. And from April 6, workshops for training of the panna pramukhs will begin,” Dhankar said.
“Each leaf of the voters’ list published by the Election Commission has 60 voters on both sides. Our four lakh panna pramukhs will be enough to reach out to all the registered voters of Haryana.”
Haryana had 1.9 crore voters in the month of January last year.
On Tuesday, after the BJP’s national executive meeting in New Delhi, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar told the media that the party discussed the strategy for the elections.
“Our target is to win all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. Our government has always focused on the uplift of antyodaya. Through public private partnership, we will continue to extend the reach of public welfare schemes to the last-mile citizen,” he said.
Last Saturday, the Haryana BJP had announced over two dozen names for its state team of social media departments. Separate in-charges were announced for WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, Koo, Twitter and Instagram.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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