At home on Navratri fast, Modi maps out his election plan

Days after his month-long Swami Vivekananda Yuva Vikas Yatra that ended at Pavagadh in Vadodara district on October 11, Chief Minister Narendra Modi has started a detailed SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of all 182 Assembly seats.

During the yatra, Modi covered 4,000 kilometres and nearly 125 constituencies.

According to sources, the CM, who is observing Navratri fast, has mostly confined himself these days to his official residence in Gandhinagar where he is analysing seats and candidates in consultations with his trusted supporters, local officials and independent experts.

A senior BJP leader said most of his ministers with some or good chances of winning would be repeated.

In February-March this year, the BJP had done a micro-analysis of booths in all 182 Assembly seats, rating them as A, B, C and D as per their importance for the party post-delimitation.

Seats which were BJP bastions were termed "A" while seats where BJP's prospects were strong were labelled "B". "C" were those seats where BJP and Congress were neck-and-neck and "D" were those where BJP had little chances of winning. Party workers were asked to focus on "C" and "D" seats.

A member of Modi's personal team said the chief minister was also meeting party leaders from across the state at his residence or at the residence of other ministers, mostly not-in-use bungalows of Vajubhai Vala, Saurabh Patel and a vacant bungalow of a former minister.

Meanwhile, state BJP parliamentary board is expected to start its review of all 182 seats from October 29 after which it is expected to finalise the list of the candidates.

The process for selection is likely to take around 10 days and is expected to be complete before Diwali. The list will then be sent to Delhi for the approval of BJP's national parliamentary board.

... contd.

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