BJP's plan for Madhya Pradesh; PM Modi, Shah fine-tune strategy to avoid 2018-like defeat

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party is in no mood to have a repeat of 2018-like loss in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly polls.

In an effort to make sure that it secures power in the central Indian state, the party's top leadership including Prime minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be in the state this month.

While the Prime Minister will be visiting the state on October 11 to inaugurate the Mahakaal corridor, named Mahakaal Lok, in Ujjain. The occasion would be used to reestablish and connect with the voters with just about a year to go for polls, sources stated.

Union Home Minister and former BJP chief Amit Shah is scheduled to visit the state on October 17. During his visit to Madhya Pradesh, Shah is expected to hold detailed talks with state party leadership and finalise the strategy for next year's assembly polls. The senior leader will be apprised of various issues and steps taken by the state BJP to ensure that it has an upper hand in the 2018 Assembly polls.

The repeated tours of the top BJP leadership to Madhya Pradesh also point towards the importance that the saffron unit attaches to the central Indian state. The Prime Minister is also expected to make another tour of the state later this month. Last month, PM Modi had visited Kuno national park in the state to launch the reintroduction of Cheetahs in India.

Mahakaal Lok and Cheetah introduction are a few of the projects that the Modi government aims to showcase ahead of crucial polls in 2018 and 2019, sources said.

The party feels that if it is able to win the forthcoming Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh its chances of retaining its tally of Lok Sabha seats from the state would be much better, sources said. The state has been playing a crucial role in forming a Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre and the BJP hopes to retain it at to ensure a third term for the saffron party-led government.

Why winning in Madhya Pradesh is important for BJP

With 29 Lok Sabha seats, Madhya Pradesh has been important in the BJP's scheme of things for the past several years. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP party had secured 27 seats in the 2014 general election while it had bettered its performance and secured 28 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

However, it had lost the state legislative Assembly polls in 2018. Which was a major setback along with losing Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. In 2018, the BJP was only able to secure 109 out of 230 seats in the MP Assembly, paving way for the formation of a Kamalnath-led government after Congress was able to win 114 seats.

Though the BJP was later able to engineer a split in the Congress and come back to power under the leadership of Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The saffron party leadership is, however, sparing no effort to stop a repeat of 2018 in Madhya Pradesh, sources said.

The party feels that if the timely political strategy is created and implemented in the state it could easily retain power where it is in direct contest with Congress. The BJP hopes that its “double engine government” can ensure its return to power in the state assembly polls in 2018.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often called on voters in electoral rallies that a double-engine government would ensure faster development of states.

Apart from its continued aggressive Hindu-Muslim pitch, the BJP hopes to set the development narrative ahead of the Assembly polls. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government is also expected to push through the mega infrastructure and road projects, sources said.