New Delhi: Convinced of its victory, India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is ready with its post-election plans, which may force some state chief ministers and governors to spend sleepless nights.

BJP has fixed it sights on at least 12 state governors and some shaky state governments for immediate action. On its radar are governments in Bihar, its neighbouring Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, which are in power with wafer thin majorities.

The governors on its target are mainly political appointees in some of the states including former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit (Kerala), former federal ministers Shivraj Patil (Punjab), Margaret Alva (Rajasthan) and former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh K. Rosaiah (Tamil Nadu), former Odisha chief minister J.B. Patnaik (Assam) and former Nagaland chief minister S.C. Jamir (Odisha).

“Their dismissals are very much on the cards. They set the precedent by sacking all BJP-appointed governors when the Congress (party) came to power in 2004. We expect Shivraj Patil who was the then union home minister played leading role in dismissal of BJP-appointed governors to take the lead and offer his resignation first,” said a senior central office bearer of the BJP.

It will be interesting to see the fate of two other governors — H.R. Bhardwaj (Karnataka) and Kamala Beniwal (Gujarat). While Bhardwaj who was federal law minister in the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance-I government between 2004 and 2009 was accused of playing proactive role against the then BJP government in Karnataka, Beniwal has often taken on the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who is BJP’s prime ministerial candidate on several issues. While Bhardwaj’s five year tenure expires in June, Beniwal is slated to retire in November. The curiosity around their fates come from the 2004 experience when the Congress party government did not allow any of the BJP-appointed governors to retire, giving them the choice to either quit or face dismissal.

The fates of the three state governments under question is largely dependent upon how BJP fares in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, which have 40, 13 and 5 Lok Sabha seats respectively. A good show by BJP in these states could spell dooms for these governments.

BJP has reasons to be annoyed with the Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (United) and Jharkhand’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). BJP was ally in power in these two states. While JD (U) ended its ties with BJP after Modi’s nomination as the prime ministerial candidate, JMM pulled down the BJP-led coalition government demanding chief minister’s post.

Congress party has been sustaining these two governments with its outside support, which barely enable these governments to touch the majority mark.

In Uttarakhand, Congress party has 32 lawmakers in the 70-member assembly and runs the government with supports of independents and others.

BJP does not intend to come to power through the backdoor in these three states and would rather prefer fresh polls in these states. Aided by defections after elections, these states would be brought under President’s rule and then fresh polls can be held in these states along with those in Haryana and Maharashtra and possibly Delhi, which is under President’s rule since February as no party is in a position to form the government after Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government quit in February after being in power for 49 days.