By IANS
New Delhi : The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set a target of 297 seats in the next Lok Sabha elections.
“These are the seats which the BJP has won at least once since 1989 when for the first time we grew to 85 seats in the Lok Sabha,” said party general secretary Sushma Swaraj Tuesday after the first meeting of BJP’s Election Management Committee (EMC) here.
Sushma said: “The rest (247 seats) we can always leave for our allies.”
L.K. Advani chaired the meeting and party president Rajnath Singh, who heads the EMC, also attended.
“Already the BJP has L.K. Advani as its prime ministerial candidate and now after identifying the victory target, we have only to identify and project the issues to approach the next general elections any moment,” commented another BJP leader privately.
Rajnath Singh constituted the EMC Jan 8. A few days earlier, Dec 29 last year, Advani summoned all his party leaders and supporters at his residence asking them to charge up full steam for the next general elections.
The BJP appointed Sushma Swaraj as National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coordinator, over and above George Fernandes, who is convenor of the opposition alliance.
She summoned all NDA chief ministers and their leaders in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to Advani’s residence Jan 22 to secure NDA’s approval to the BJP’s plans.
The first EMC meeting “identified four main issues to be tackled”, she said.
These are: the current political situation, the change in the complexion of constituencies of both Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas as a consequence of fresh delimitation, management of polling booths, and the possibility of striking new alliances.
“The mood was upbeat in today’s meeting. We knew that we are already ahead and we are confident that we will remain ahead of the (ruling) UPA (United Progressive Alliance) till the end,” said a beaming Sushma.
Notwithstanding the enthusiasm Sushma claimed, at least five of the 19 members abstained from the meeting.
They, she said, were, “Venkaiah (Naidu) and Anath Kumar who are away celebrating Pongal. Arun Jaitely, Arun Shourie and Gopinath Munde were busy elsewhere”.
Shourie, who was appointed by Advani to a five-member committee to prepare a draft plan, also stayed away from the Jan 2 meeting. Similarly Gopinath Munde is the brother-in-law of Pramod Mahajan who had a very uncomfortable relationship with Advani.