As celebrations continue, Das plans state polls strategy

Ranchi: Fresh from its spectacular performance in the Lok Sabha elections, where it won 12 of 14 seats in the state and matched its tally from the 2014 polls, BJP has now set its sight on the assembly elections, scheduled to take place in less than six months.
Even as the saffron party’s supporters and workers danced on the streets and its MP-elects took out victory marches in their respective constituencies a day after the results were declared, the party’s state election management committee went into a huddle to chalk out its strategy for the assembly polls.
Chief minister Raghubar Das, who worked overtime to ensure BJP victory and went on a whirlwind campaign trail for more than 60 days, set the agenda of the review meeting on Friday.
Eager to replicate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s feat, Das said the party’s next objective was to win two-thirds of the seats in the 81-member assembly. “He praised the BJP workers for their effort and advised them to take rest for a little while before returning for their next mission,” a senior leader who attended the meeting, said.
Speaking to TOI after the meeting, state party president Laxman Gilua, the only of two BJP candidates in the state to taste defeat in the LS polls, said the party has already started its preparations for assembly elections. “It was our robust booth and mandal management which won us the day. We are going back to our strengths,” he added.
Six months after Narendra Modi stormed to power in 2014, BJP performed well in Jharkhand and bagged 37 seats on its own. It stitched up an alliance with Ajsu Party, which had five MLAs, and further grew in strength after six JVM-P MLAs defected to its camp. Das was at the helm of the first majority government in Jharkhand and is also set to become the first to complete a full term in office.
While he spearheaded BJP’s campaign statewide and addressed around 128 election rallies in the last couple of months, Das will face his litmus test this autumn. “After this landslide victory, the atmosphere seems to be in our favour,” a senior BJP leader said. Das, who has had a rocky ride in five years, has also faced resistance from within and outside his party for the decisions of his government and his ‘Diku’ (outsider) tag because of his roots in the neighbouring Chhattisgarh.