BJP chases third straight poll win with bigger margin: A SWOT analysis
BJP has set itself an ambitious target of winning 370 Lok Sabha seats, a goal aimed as much at projecting its strength as at diminishing the opposition in popular imagination. Only once in the last five decades has a party won so many seats. A nationwide sympathy wave following Indira Gandhi's assassination had carried the Congress to 414 seats in the 543-member House in 1984.
The Election Commission formally kicked off the 2024 general election with the announcement of the poll schedule on Saturday. Lok Sabha polls for 543 seats will be held in seven phases starting with voting for 102 seats in first phase on April 19. Counting of votes will be held on June 4.
Sceptics believe that the BJP maxed out in 2019 when it won 303 seats by virtually sweeping its strongholds in the west and Hindi-speaking states in east and central India.
They argue that since the BJP has not been able to make much headway in assembly elections held thereafter in south India and states like West Bengal, where it made impressive gains in 2019, the party do not have much scope for improvement and can go down if the opposition can get their act together.
However, the BJP has often surprised political watchers with its poll performance on the back of its enviable feedback mechanism, organisational heft and willingness for course correction combined with a charismatic leader in Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose popular appeal endures.
Here is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the ruling party as it chases a
