Haryana: BJP assessing winnability of candidates via agencies

Multiple private agencies are evaluating the “worth” of the prospective candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), four months ahead of the parliamentary elections in the state, to arrive at the “winning” ticket aspirant at every seat. A similar assessment is on for all Assembly seats where elections are due in October this year, though the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government has maintained that it is ready for simultaneous elections.

Sources in the party said multiple agencies were assessing the mood of the electorate, the performance of the sitting Member of Parliament and the MLA, the “popular” faces at any particular seat and the options available to the party, besides the dominant issues of the segment.

“This survey is not new and has been going on for some time now. We have been carrying out such surveys from time to time to ascertain the performance of our government and local representatives and to get the true picture of the ground reality. However, we have roped in multiple agencies now to have independent feedback from more than one source,” said a source, adding that the assessment was being done on various parameters.

The sources said based on this feedback, the party would chalk out a list of candidates for the 10 parliamentary seats and the 90 Assembly seats of Haryana. “Giving party tickets is the most important decision for any political outfit. We want to do our homework before these are finalised,” a party leader stated. The sources said the BJP could bring in fresh faces from seats where the performance of sitting candidates was unsatisfactory.

Maintaining that the party was closely scrutinising their work, an MLA said everything was being monitored. “If we address public meetings in villages, there are independent agency observers keeping tabs on what we speak and what the response of the public is. Our social media accounts are being closely followed to know the frequency with which we are posting, the response we are getting and the number of followers we have. There is tremendous pressure on us to put our best foot forward,” the MLA said.

A minister added that the party had employed multiple agencies to “keep tabs” and ensure error-free feedback. “If one agency gets it wrong, there are two or three other agencies which will give the right picture,” he stated.

Sources said the party wanted to be fully prepared by the time the elections are announced and the model code of conduct is imposed. The feedback was being shared with the party leadership at various levels and the need to conduct and re-conduct surveys was necessitated due to the changing situation on ground.