The BJP held the first meeting of its central election management committee (CEMC) on the auspicious day of Makar Sankranti.
A high-level election committee set up to make key decisions
NEW DELHI: A day after Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had a royal 45-dish Pongal lunch with AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa in Chennai, an upbeat BJP held the first meeting of its central election management committee (CEMC) on the auspicious day of Makar Sankranti.
The BJP sees the Modi-Jayalalithaa lunch as a major step forward in stitching up an alliance with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. While a formal word on the matter would come closer to the parliamentary elections, senior BJP leaders are happy about the development.
Not just Jayalalithaa, the BJP has decided to actively woo potential allies in different parts of the country. Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad briefed Leader of Opposition LK Advani and party president Rajnath Singh separately on the issue.
It was treated as a "sensitive issue" and thus was not taken up at the meeting.
To keep the NDA allies in the loop, a meeting of all opposition coalition leaders, including chief ministers of BJP allies like Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Nitish Kumar of Bihar, Prakash Singh Badal of Punjab and various floor leaders of state assemblies and the parliament have been invited for a meeting at Advani's residence on
January 22.
In an attempt to maintain a lead over Congress, BJP decided to assess its chances in 297 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, where the party had won the seat at least once since 1989.
Forty-three seats, which were won at least four to five times since 1989, were classified as 'A+' while seats which the party had won two to three times were included in the ‘A’ category.
The seats won only once were put in the 'C' category. There were 189 seats which the party had never won or where it had remained in the second slot in the past elections.
Sushma said a sub-group would be set up giving it a mandate to apprise the CEMC in a time-bound manner, especially since the next LS elections were likely to be held under the new delimitation list.
The group would assess if the proposed changes were beneficial or otherwise. It will brief the CEMC on the reasons for the party's success, like alliances at the national or regional levels, personalities and local factors. to the CEMC.
s_singh@dnaindia.net 
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