SCOTTISH Labour has rewritten its election strategy following a series of opinion polls predicting disaster for the party, including the loss of leader Jim Murphy's seat.

The party has abandoned its explicit pitch to Yes voters in favour of Operation Undecided, which focuses on the one third of the electorate yet to make up its mind.

As part of the rescue plan, candidates are expected to spend two hours a day making telephone calls to people who are unsure of who to support.

In January, Murphy said his general election campaign was based on wooing the 190,381 voters who backed Labour at the last Westminster poll, but who then voted for independence.

These voters, many of whom are male and live in the west of Scotland, were identified last year in party canvassing returns ahead of September 18th.

The strategy also led to Murphy casting himself as a Scottish patriot, which involved rewriting the Scottish Labour constitution and declaring himself not to be a Unionist.

Murphy also flagged up the importance of the Labour-friendly Yes voters to the campaign:

"The election in Scotland will be largely decided by that group of people. And the election in Scotland will decide the outcome across the UK, so they are the most important voters in the UK, this 190,381."

His team also drew up plans for the election campaign to be called Yes for Labour, even going so far as to register websites, but the plan was dropped.

Party sources have told this newspaper the strategy of targeting Yes voters has been shelved for two reasons.

Voters did not like to be pigeon-holed as Yes or No voters, and Murphy's reinvention as a patriot made no difference in the polls, which regularly show Labour being reduced from 40 seats to single digits.

In its place, Operation Undecided came into force recently and focuses on two types of voter from post-referendum canvass returns: people who are unsure about their voting intentions; and soft SNP supporters.

The latter group has been identified by Labour activists asking whether voters would prefer a Labour or a Tory Government.

If SNP backers express a preference for Labour running Whitehall, follow up calls are made.

Although a TNS poll last week produced another huge SNP lead over Labour amongst those certain to vote, 29% of the 978 people sampled said they were still undecided.

In Glasgow, 39% of those polled said they had not reached a decision.

Murphy's messaging has also shifted, one senior party insider said, from "soft nationalism" to "old Labour" and anti-Toryism.

"The problem is Jim is all over the place. He's gone from putting a kilt on everything to now talking about socialism. It lacks credibility," the insider said.

Friday's poll by Lord Ashcroft - which found the Nationalists ahead in Murphy's East Renfrewshire seat - appears to cast doubt on whether the new approach is having any effect.

The snapshot put the SNP on 40% in the constituency, 9% ahead of Labour, with the Nationalists also leading in shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander's seat.

Speaking at a campaign event in Glasgow yesterday, Murphy said of the poll:

"We're behind in the opinion polls, we know that. We can see the polls."

He later told the Sunday Herald: "I'll win that seat. I've been the underdog in that constituency in every election.

"The outsider in that seat has always stayed the same: it's been me. The favourite has always changed. I'll win."

However, party insiders worry that the Ashcroft poll will have the effect of sucking resources away from other battlegrounds seats in order to save Murphy from humiliation.

The Ashcroft poll showed a heavy Labour presence on the doorsteps of the constituency, and the leader now has a full-time organiser working for him in East Renfrewshire.

One of Murphy's senior aides told this newspaper that his local campaign team had made four times as many voter contacts as compared to the 2010 general election.

This newspaper revealed recently that senior party figures were already angry about resources being diverted to save shadow Scotland secretary Margaret Curran and other favoured "sons and daughters".

Meanwhile, a daily newspaper claimed yesterday that Murphy, who was elected leader in December, has commissioned legal advice on whether he can stay in post if he loses his seat.

Parliamentarians stand to be Scottish Labour leader, but the rules are silent on what happens in the event of the post-holder no longer being in either Holyrood or Westminster.

Murphy's office denied the legal advice claim

An SNP spokesperson: "The SNP have been speaking with voters on the doorstep and in local communities for many months, and a strong team of SNP MPs at Westminster can provide the backbone that Labour so desperately need.

"Under Jim Murphy, Labour have become Operation Clueless. What we are experiencing is many No voters who are choosing to put their trust in the SNP."

David Montgomerie, the Scottish Tory candidate in East Renfrewshire said: "It's becoming clearer than ever to people in East Renfrewshire that Scottish Labour is a sinking ship."

"With Ed Miliband failing to rule out a deal with Nicola Sturgeon after the election, people across East Renfrewshire no longer know what Labour believes in."

"By contrast, the majority of people here who voted No to independence last year, know exactly that they can trust the Scottish Conservatives not to do any backroom deals with the Nationalists and to stand up for our United Kingdom."

A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: "It has always been Scottish Labour strategy to target undecided voters, which polls put as high as 39% in parts of Scotland."