BJP top brass discusses preparations for polls in 7 states
SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEENew Delhi: Kick starting the preparation for Assembly elections in seven states slated to go to polls next year, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top brass held a meeting on Saturday at the party headquarters.
BJP chief JP Nadda and Union Ministers–Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Prahlad Joshi, Mansukh Mandaviya, Smriti Irani, Dharmendra Pradhan were present in the meeting. Other party vice presidents and general secretaries also participated the meeting.
Meanwhile, the party leaders have decided to visit the poll-bound states and hold meetings with the local leadership. They will meet the district leaders and booth incharges to craft an intensive poll strategy. The saffron party will form respective teams for all the seven states in the next month, party sources said.
The BJP is in power in all these states except Punjab and making its effort to put up an impressive show after the major face-off in West Bengal.
UP is crucial as the BJP's political fortunes as the party has been the dominant power in the country's largest state since Prime Minister Narendra Modi led it to power in 2014. Secondly, the state has witnessed some intense infighting within the incumbent party leadership in the recent past and the differences may escalate as polls near. Some party MLAs publicly have accused the top leadership of turning a blind eye to the crisis of the pandemic that ripped through the lives and livelihoods of people of the state. BJP's central leadership was quick to sense the growing discontent within the party and its support base and knew that the damage control needs to begin fast before it causes more harm. The general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santosh and observer Radha Mohan Singh paid a couple of visits in a month to the state. They held meetings with State unit office-bearers. After the recent setback in the Panchayat polls, many district councils are yet to elect the heads of these district-level bodies and, therefore, the party also needs to discuss strategy to get their candidates elected to that post in maximum districts.
Not even BJP, but its ideological organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has also expressed concern and the general secretary Dattatreya Hosbole had also taken inputs from various BJP and Sangh leaders during his trip to Lucknow earlier this month.
On the other hand, in Uttarakhand, the discontent within the party ranks was so high that the high command had to replace the chief minister ahead of the mega Kumbh Mela event.
The situation, however, has not been favourable for the BJP in another poll-bound state Goa as well. B.L. Santhosh was rushed to Goa following a lower-than-expected performance under the leadership of CM Pramod Sawant
Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand will go to the Assembly polls early next year, whereas, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh will go to polls in the later half.
