Jaipur, Nov 11: In the polls to 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, 57 seats, which the BJP had never won other than in by-elections, are likely to play a crucial role as the party was making sustained efforts to clinch the seats, which traditionally went to Congress. BJP, going all out to return to power in the desert state, would be making sustained efforts this time to break the jinx on these seats, party sources said here today.
BJP had all along been a non-starter on these 57 seats in assembly elections and those always added to the Congress tally helping it considerably to win the polls, Chandra Raj Singhavi, political secretary to state BJP chief Vasundhara Raje, said.
The party is encouraged by 1999 Lok Sabha poll results when BJP registered lead over rivals in 130 assembly segments winning 16 of 25 parliamentary seats in the desert state and also assembly bye-elections in which it could get Itawar seats which they had never won in the past, party sources said.
If the leads in Lok Sabha election results are taken into account, the number of seats from where BJP never won are reduced to 25, they said.
The party is, therefore, giving focused attention to all the 57 seats in its poll strategy.
Party candidates on all of these seats have been declared retaining the winners of bypolls, they added.
Bureau Report