By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
DEHRADUN, 7 Dec: BJP in Uttarakhand is considering that it would have to work hard on 30 seats in order to win maximum of those seats. After several round of internal and external surveys, the party considers that it would have to work harder and even consider replacing its candidates on them in order to be able to win these understand that it would not be easy to repeat last time’s performance in the upcoming assembly polls but they do not wish to give up easily on this issue and therefore are claiming that the BJP is targeting to win 60 seats this time. Of course with a committed party cadre and pushy Central leadership, Uttarakhand BJP is not further claim that out of the 30 seats where the party thinks that it will have to work harder, around 20 are those seats where the party had won last time, while the 10 are those, where the Congress had won the last time. According to the party sources, BJP is doing homework in respect of the 10 seats that are seat, claim the party insiders. It may be recalled here that Uttarakhand has 70 assembly constituencies and in the 2017 polls, the BJP had managed to win 57 of these seats. The party leaders going to yield any space to its political rivals so easily. Hence, some rounds of surveys, both internal and external were conducted on behalf of the party and the sources claimed that the party was finding that it was strong enough in around 40 seats but would have to work harder this time on the remaining 30 seats. Sources presently held by Congress and making its strategy to win at least three to four of them by working harder and by fielding strong candidates. The party has also sought a feedback from the workers in respect of winnability factor of the prospective BJP candidates. In addition, the party is also in touch with its MPs and has sought their feedback too in this respect. The convenor and assembly in-charge posted in 70 assembly constituencies are an important link in this campaign. Meanwhile, the team of election in-charge and co-in-charges under the leadership of Union Minister Prahlad Joshi has also started assessing the strength of the MLAs and potential contenders. The party sources claim that though the party might be looking to replace at least around 25 candidates including several sitting MLAs, it realises that it is not always prudent and productive to replace everyone as the chances of dissidence are always there leading to potential losses. Hence they admit that the practical number of the candidates that could be replaced could be somewhere near 15 or 16. The election in-charge is also taking feedback from the candidates who have contested the assembly elections in the past. Discussions are also being held with those contenders of the party, who had contested the last election on the party ticket, but lost. The feedback received by the party leadership and the election in-charge so far has almost the effect of antiincumbency in the constituencies of the MLAs. In more than 20 seats, this trend is in dire straits, while in other seats it has little effect. In this context, if the party makes all the 57 MLAs candidates, then it will face an anti-incumbency challenge. The party is under tremendous pressure to change candidates in some of the 57 seats that it won last time. In some seats, the party is seriously considering the option of changing the MLA’s seat to eliminate the effect of antiincumbency. Now the party will start doing homework regarding choosing probable candidates and these names would then be reviewed and field reports taken in respect of them before recommending names to the Central Parliamentary Board for final selection.