An internal survey commissioned by the BJP has reported that the saffron party faces anti-incumbency in at least 152 parliamentary constituencies out of 282 which the party won in 2014.
In a bid to regain power, the BJP is now looking to make up for this deficit by strengthening itself in the South, especially in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha and in West Bengal.
These four states have a total of 105 Lok Sabha seats and BJP could win only six seats here in 2014. Although there is no negative feeling against the BJP in Telangana, KCR is well entrenched there.
In Odisha, there is anti-incumbency against Naveen Patnaik and against Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.
Anti-incumbency is very high in Andhra Pradesh against Chandrababu Naidu who has been a complete failure. His reign has been nothing short of a disaster.
Ironically though, the BJP will find it toughest to make inroads in Andhra because of the special status issue and the way the yellow media is degrading the BJP day in and day out in a bid to protect Chandrababu Naidu.
On the whole, it’s not going to be an easy task for the BJP but then they have a master strategist in the form of Amit Shah. It’s a tall order but if anyone can do it, he can.
