BJP chief JP Nadda takes charge of HP electioneering, drives campaign strategy

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda will visit Himachal Pradesh on Friday, his third visit in a month to the state where he has taken charge of the party’s electioneering for elections expected to be held later this year.

According to people aware of the details, Nadda who hails from the hill state, has been overseeing the preparations, right from strengthening the party’s presence at the booth level to firming up the campaign points and the narrative to be underscored at its public rallies.

“In the past one month, he spent seven days travelling in Himachal Pradesh, meeting party workers and galvanising the cadre to ensure that the party comes back to power with a thumping majority,” said a senior party functionary.

Nadda’s first of the two previous visits to the election-bound state came soon after the party won elections in Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Uttar Pradesh in March.

On Friday, Nadda is scheduled to address a public meeting in Kullu and hold a meeting with party leaders. The following day, he will also interact with the youth wing in Dharamsala.

The focus of matters public meetings and outreach programmes has been the people-centric policies of the union government and the state government. The BJP believes it will be able to buck any possible anti-incumbency sentiment in Himachal Pradesh just as it did in the four states in view of the public response to schemes such as free food grains and subsidies.

The BJP won 44 of the 68 seats in the assembly in 2017. However, the party faced a setback in 2021 when it failed to win the by-elections held in the Parliamentary constituency of Mandi and assembly constituencies of Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal Kotkhai.