BJP plans ground feedback exercise to pick candidates for Jharkhand assembly elections

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning to hold a massive exercise to seek opinions from its panchayat-level workers about possible candidates in each of the 81 assembly segments for the upcoming elections, besides hiring an independent agency to seek perspective from people across different spectrums of society, people aware of the development said on Wednesday.

The party will soon be finalising the dates for the ‘Raishumaari’ (seeking opinion) with the party workers at the grassroots. Party insiders said the issue was discussed in the first meeting of the election committee on Monday, which was chaired by the party’s assembly election co-incharge and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Insiders said dates for the exercise and the appointment of observers are being worked out, and it is likely to be approved in the meeting chaired by Union minister Shivraj Chauhan, election in-charge, in the state capital on September 7.

“Holding Raishumaari with party workers is not new for the party. But this time the scale has been increased. Till now, the opinion of office bearers at the level of Mandal (blocks) was sought in candidate selection through secret ballot. This time, the plan is to take it to the panchayat level. Depending on the number of panchayats in each constituency, this number could vary from 500-700 persons,” a senior BJP leader said.

“The party would appoint observers for all assembly segments under whose watch the party workers would be asked to submit their choices for the party candidate in their constituency. These secret ballots would then be collected, followed by scrutiny of these choices. The list of candidates will be prepared accordingly. The state election committee would then list three possible candidates for each seat and deliberate upon it before sending it to the central committee. It’s not that the candidates would be finalised only on this basis, but it would surely be an indicator of their acceptance among the party cadre,” the leader added.

With the Jharkhand assembly elections reportedly to be held in November, insiders said the party started the candidate selection exercise and could announce its first list before the poll dates are formally announced.

Besides taking opinions from the party workers, the party is also planning to hire an independent agency to seek feedback from common people, especially from different professional groups, about the favourite candidates, party leaders said. This feedback would be in addition to the multiple surveys the party has conducted at various levels in the past few months.

While the BJP leadership would be holding the ‘Raishumaari’ with party workers in all assembly seats, the saffron party is set to contest the polls in alliance with NDA partners AJSU Party and possibly JDU. The seat-sharing is still to be finalised.