By Shashi Bhushan
New Delhi, Nov 7 (IANS) Unfazed by the debut of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in Goa, the BJP is focusing on strengthening its organisation across the state with special emphasis on the seats it has never won. The BJP is working on forming the government for the third time after next year’s Assembly polls.
Goa Assembly polls will be held in February- March next year along with Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur. The BJP has been in power in the coastal state since 2012.
The saffron party is confident that its around 33 per cent vote share, which it had got in 2017 Assembly polls, will not only remain intact but also increase with party growth in many new areas. In the last Assembly polls, the BJP got over 32 per cent vote share, while the main opposition Congress got around 28 per cent. Debutant, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party had received little over six per cent.
BJP national general secretary and Goa in-charge C.T. Ravi told IANS that the entry of Trinamool Congress will have no impact on the ruling party’s vote. “Mamata Banerjee’s TMC will make a dent in the opposition vote share and it will weaken the opposition not the BJP. All the opposition parties are fighting among themselves to become the main opposition party in Goa, not with the BJP,” Ravi said.
Ravi claimed that BJP’s vote share is not going anywhere and it is intact. “In fact, our vote share will increase as people have seen the development of the state under the BJP government at Centre and state. BJP is not concerned about any opposition party or parties. We are working to strengthen our organisation at ground across the state,” Ravi said.
As part of an organisational programme to strengthen the party on ground, the BJP has completed formation of booth committees in 32 Assembly constituencies and it will be completed in the remaining eight Assembly seats by the end of the month. A booth committee has 21 members at each polling booth consisting women, youth, Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Caste (OBC) and other sections of society.
The BJP organisational set up divides Goa into two districts and 40 mandals (blocks). Goa has a total 1,663 polling booths spread in 40 Assembly seats and the BJP has divided these polling booths into 496 ‘shakti kendras’ (cluster of three and four polling booths).
To win Assembly constituencies it has never won in the state, the BJP has started enrolling local influential leaders from opposition parties to strengthen. The BJP believes that these local strong leaders will give a boost to its campaign.
The saffron party is also trying to win support of Christian community which constitutes 26 per cent of the state electorate. A party leader said that around 15 to 20 per cent Christian used to vote and the BJP is now trying to increase it. Christian are in dominating positions in 13 Assembly constituencies of Goa.
(Shashi Bhushan be reached at shashi.b@ians.in)
–IANS
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