After Maharashtra setback, how BJP is planning to regroup, bridge gap with MVA

Stung by its poor performance in Maharashtra that saw its tally fall from 23 in 2019 to nine this time, the BJP has decided to undertake a massive outreach plan — “ghar ghar chalo abhiyan (let’s go to every household campaign)” — in a bid to reconnect with voters. This was among the many decisions taken at a meeting of the party’s state leadership held on Friday to conduct an initial review of the election results.

With the Assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year, the BJP has now decided to employ a multi-pronged strategy to course correct and convince voters about the governance track record of both the Central and state governments. Through the campaign, the party plans to reach out to communities such as Dalits, tribals, and Marathas that seemingly drifted away from it during the parliamentary elections.

In the meeting, senior BJP leaders, including Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, national general secretary Vinod Tawde, and Union Minister Piyush Goyal who is the Mumbai North MP, tried to encourage the cadre and emphasised the need for one-on-one communication with voters.

Sources said Fadnavis, who had offered to quit as Deputy CM taking moral responsibility and to “devote his time to the organisation”, pointed out that the difference in vote share between the Mahayuti ruling alliance and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) bloc was just 0.3 percentage point. “We can easily bridge this gap. Even if we enhance our vote share by 1.5%, we will win the Assembly polls. There is no reason to be on the back foot. We will bounce back,” a source quoted him as saying. The NDA got 43.6% of the votes as against the MVA’s 43.9% vote share in the Lok Sabha polls.

As a part