As the Election Commission has set in motion the two-month long election process with announcement of poll dates, the BJP will be betting high on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image.
For the most crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, the BJP would go ahead without a chief ministerial candidate despite twin challenge from Samajwadi Party and BSP which have their CM faces. The saffron party would be focusing its campaign on hardselling likely benefits that would flow from demonestisation and surgical strike. The party would also bank on the soaps that the Union budget would dole out to farmers and dalits in the poll-bound states.
Modi would be the mascot of BJP's campaign as he already addressed six rallies in Uttar Pradesh during the parivartan yatra, which according to party sources had covered all the assembly constituencies in the state.
The BJP would also present demonetisation as a major strike against corruption in a bid to counter the SP and the BSP that have ruled the state for 14 years.
“Governance and development will be BJP's slogan for the state,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
In Punjab, where the Akali-BJP alliance is facing an anti-incumbency sentiment, the saffron party would contest the election under the same seat sharing formula.
Citing the results of the recently held municipal elections in various states, the party said people have welcomed the demonetisation exercise.
“State elections are fought largely on the state-level issues ...(but) there is a positive undercurrent for the BJP across the country which is what we have seen post demonetisation. There is a strong undercurrent. Therefore, we expect to win all the states ... our stakes are the lowest, but our gains are going to be highest," BJP national spokesperson G.V.L. Narsimha Rao said.
The BJP is likely to announce its list of candidates later this month.
