MODI’S 2024 PLAN: UNION MINISTERS TO INCUBATE 3 DISTRICTS EACH

Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tasked every Union Cabinet Minister with an additional responsibility to politically incubate two to three districts (parliamentary constituencies) each across India to further improve BJP’s performance in the 2024 general elections.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Narayan Rane and Anurag Thakur have been assigned to Maharashtra in the first phase of this rotational political gambit.

While Sitharaman’s political brief includes Baramati, the bastion of NCP Chief Sharad Pawar, Goyal, Thakur and Rane will reach out to Mumbai’s constituents creating goodwill over Union Government schemes and initiatives with an emphasis on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP’s south Mumbai unit will hold a preparatory meeting at the Sharada School auditorium in Opera House at 4 pm on Monday in anticipation of the Union ministers’ arrival. The BJP leaders will be briefed on the assistance and cooperation expected of them to make PM Modi’s political gambit a success. In the immediate future the Union ministers are expected to give an impetus to the Ghar Ghar Tiranga campaign in their outreach to voters across India.

“There will be a rotational policy. So, while Goyal, Rane and Thakur will focus on Mumbai initially, they will later be assigned to other districts,” a person familiar issue explained.

Confirming reports, Fandavis said, “Baramati is among the 16 constituencies BJP has deputed key leaders to take responsibility to improve poll performance. Nirmalaji has been given the responsibility for Baramati, and will make her first visit around September.

The BJP had come closest to wresting Baramati--the unconquered bastion of the Sharad Pawar family since 1967--during the Modi Wave in May, 2014. Though BJP had not fielded a party candidate against Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule, the sitting MP from Baramati, the Sena-BJP combine had supported Rashtriya Samaj Paksha’s Mahadev Jankar, a leader from the Dhangar (shepherd) community. The community was upset that the then Cong-NCP government had declared 16% reservation for the Maratha community and 5% for Muslims, while ignoring their long-standing demand.

Modi’s charismatic campaign combined with the Dhankar angst propelled Jankar to 4,51,843 votes against Sule’s 5,21,562, and reduce her victory margin to her lowest. However, she managed to retain the seat, and improve her performance in 2019. Experts felt Jankar would have had a better chance if he had contested on a BJP ticket in 2014.