With Assembly elections approaching in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab, BJP strategists, working closely with state leaders, have identified state-specific issues and constituencies requiring special attention in these and the other four states due for elections in 2027.
For example in Punjab, where the BJP was previously a junior partner in the Shiromani Akali Dal-led alliance, the party is preparing an independent and comprehensive strategy for all 117 Assembly constituencies. According to sources, its campaign will focus primarily on issues such as drug abuse, religious conversions and economic growth in the border state.
In Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP remains a dominant political force, the party has identified constituencies where its performance was weaker in recent elections. In Uttarakhand, where the BJP won 47 of the 70 Assembly seats in 2022, dropping around 10 from previous elections, it has identified around 17 constituencies for focused intervention.
In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 75 Assembly constituencies have been placed under direct monitoring, with extensive organisational outreach and ground-level engagement programmes. These are seats the party either lost narrowly or where its performance has declined.
The BJP has already activated its hyper-local, booth-level management strategy in the politically crucial state, often regarded as the gateway to power at the Centre. The objective is to improve the party’s strike rate in the 403-member Assembly, regain seats lost in the 2022 state elections and reverse the setbacks suffered in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The strategy is also aimed at countering the Samajwadi Party’s ‘PDA’ — Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak — social coalition, which emerged as a formidable electoral force in the 2024 parliamentary elections. The BJP plans to rebuild its support base among key social groups, particularly non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dalits, sections that showed signs of drifting away from the party during the Lok Sabha polls.
Special attention will also be given to constituencies where the BJP underperformed over the last three election cycles. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the INDIA bloc won 43 of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 seats, gaining significantly over its 2019 tally, while the BJP-led NDA was reduced to 36 seats.
The party is also collecting public feedback on the performance of sitting MLAs, sources said, describing it as a key exercise in deciding whether incumbent legislators should be retained or replaced.
Party leaders say they are prepared to take difficult decisions on candidate selection, in all the poll-bound states, including the four others scheduled later in the year. Encouraged by targeted organisational approach in West Bengal, the BJP has also begun state-specific outreach for the other states scheduled to go to the polls in 2027 — Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Goa.