Nitin Nabin in Uttarakhand, BJP signals early prep for assembly polls

NEW DELHI: Uttarakhand may not figure high among states ranked by political weight but it warrants enough importance in the BJP's scheme of things for its president Nitin Nabin to spend three days touching base with booth-level members, MPs and MLAs and brainstorming with them over winning seats that the party lost narrowly in 2022.

While assembly election in the hill state is due early next year, it is still two years away in Karnataka where he was recently for two days, emphasising the need for putting up a united face to the party's state unit which has a history of internal bickering. Nabin combined his effort to unify ranks with one, like addressing intellectuals, for connecting with important constituencies.

Election or no election, BJP is always preparing for the next round of polls: muscling up its much-vaunted organisational machinery, reaching out to people and adapting its messaging, while its rivals are often seen to be springing to action much closer to the formal announcement of contest.

The next round of assembly polls in five states - UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa - are nine to 10 months away but BJP has been making moves to outpace its rivals and make an early start.

BJP is in office in all these states except Punjab, where it is investing a lot of political capital to emerge as a strong force after playing second fiddle to former ally Akali Dal for over two decades till their 2020 split.

If its Dec appointment of Pankaj Chaudhary, a Kurmi from the backward classes which drifted from BJP to Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance in a big chunk in Lok Sabha polls, was seen as part of its political strategy to claw back territory it lost in 2024, the governing party is expected to continue with steps in the coming days to counter SP's PDA (pichhda-dalit-alpasankhyak) pitch.