The BJP in Uttaranchal has decided to re-chalk its strategy to face Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year. The party has decided to move to the interior of the hills to re-establish its mass base, which it lost to the Congress in successive elections.To kick off the campaign, the party will be holding a Lalkar (challenge) Rally for the unemployed and the youth at the border district of Pitthoragarh on May 30. Similar rallies will be held in other parts by the party’s women, youth, minorities and SC/ST cells in June.Starting with Assembly elections held in 2002, the BJP state unit lost in Ramnagar Assembly and Nainital Lok Sabha by-elections, followed by a rout in the local bodies’ elections during the last one year.Despite scandals emerging out of the ruling party’s cupboards regularly, the BJP has failed to exploit them politically either inside or outside the Assembly.But with LS polls fast approaching, the party has been forced to redraw its strategy. BJP state president Manohar Kant Dhyani has already started a block level yatra to cover the entire state. ‘‘I have already visited 49 of the 82 blocks of the state,’’ he said. To focus aggressively on the shortcomings of the Tiwari government, the party has appointed Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, former BJP finance minister, as the spokesman of the state party unit.
