Shah, Nadda hold discussions with BJP’s Raj leadership on upcoming Assembly polls

Jaipur: Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda wound up their Rajasthan visit Thursday morning after meetings with the party’s state leadership that went late into the night, discussing strategy for the upcoming Assembly elections.

The meetings began at a hotel late on Wednesday evening and continued till 2 am, party sources said.

The discussions were held amid a buzz that two central ministers might be asked to contest the upcoming polls. The speculation follows the BJP’s decision to name three Union ministers and four MPs in its second list of candidates for poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. Following the meeting, both Shah and Nadda left for Delhi on Thursday. A meeting with local RSS leaders was not held, party sources said.

‘Discussions on election strategy were held in the meeting last night,’ Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told reporters at the hotel on Thursday.

Shah and Nadda arrived in Jaipur on a special plane on Wednesday evening and headed to the hotel near the airport for the core committee meeting. Party sources said that Shah and Nadda first held a meeting with former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje for around 15 minutes.

It was followed by a meeting with senior leaders in which the party’s election strategy was discussed. Feedback on the four ‘Parivartan Yatras’ that the BJP held recently was also discussed.

Union minister and the party’s election in-charge for Rajasthan Pralhad Joshi, co-in-charge Nitin Patel, BJP’s in-charge for Rajasthan Arun Singh, state unit president C P Joshi, Union Ministers Gajendra Singh, Arjun Meghwal, Kailash Chaudhary, leader of opposition in Assembly Rajendra Rathore, deputy leader of opposition Satish Poonia and other leaders were present at the meeting, the sources said.

The meeting continued for around three hours. Poonia and MP Rajyavardhan Rathore were the first to leave the venue after the first round. Nadda and Shah held the next round of meeting with the BJP’s national general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh, Union minister Pralhad Joshi, Nitin Patel, Arun Singh, Kuldeep Vishnoi and Vijaya Rahatkar, among others, the party sources said.