BJP leaders meet to talk polls strategy
PTI, New Delhi
With the exit polls projecting the NDA nearing the half-way mark, just short of absolute majority in 14th Lok Sabha, top BJP leaders are meeting in New Delhi yesterday to review the last three phases of polling and draw up a strategy for the fourth and final phase on May 10.The meeting to be chaired by party President M Venkaiah Naidu, is being attended among others by party general secretaries Sanjay Joshi and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, besides Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. Besides the exit polls predictions, the party is expected to review the feedback on the last three phases of elections received from its whole time chunav sahayaks (poll assistants), party sources said. The party is also expected to review the efficacy of nigrani dals (vigilante squads), comprising its youth and women's wing activists, which were deployed at over 700 sensitive booths across the country during the third phase of polling, they said. The party leaders are also expected to draw up a strategy for 'full scale' offensive and 'carpet bombing' by its top leaders in the remaining 182 constituencies going to polls on May 10. Meanwhile, Star News TV channel and C-Voter polling agency Wednesday said the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party was heading towards a majority with 270 to 282 seats of the 543 being contested. However, polls by other channels showed the alliance could fall short by about nine seats, with one saying the shortfall could be as much as 27. A party or an alliance needs 272 seats to be able to form a government. The fifth and largest round of voting will be held on May 10 and results of the mammoth election are expected three days later.
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