BJP holds five meetings with its Punjab unit to discuss poll preparedness
Darpan News Desk IANS, 14 Oct, 2021 10:57 AM
New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) Gearing up for the Punjab assembly polls, the BJP central leadership has held five meetings with the state unit in the national capital. In the coming days, central leaders including the election in-charge and co-incharges will start visiting the state where polls will be held early next year.
A senior party functionary said that the fact that the BJP has never been in power in Punjab on its own, this time the party is leaving no stone unturned and the central leadership is regularly reviewing the poll preparedness of the state unit.
"In the run up to the assembly polls scheduled early next year, the BJP Punjab unit has launched several campaigns to strengthen its organizational structure at the ground level and the progress of these campaigns was also discussed in these meetings," he said.
It is learnt that the top leadership of the BJP Punjab unit was present during these five meetings. "We have had five meetings in New Delhi with the state leadership. We reviewed preparedness and the work done under several programmes. Future plans were also discussed. We are contesting to win and working according to our plans. Everyone in the Punjab unit has worked hard for the expansion of the party across the state in the last one year and it will be visible in next year's assembly polls," BJP national general secretary and Punjab in-charge Dushyant Gautam said.
It is also learnt that the BJP's election in-charge for Punjab, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and co-incharges Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Meenakshi Lekhi and Lok Sabha member Vinod Chavda will make their first visit to the state soon.
Gautam said that the election in-charges and co-incharges were supposed to visit the state earlier but had been delayed due to the death of Union minister Shekhawat's mother. "Election in-charge and co-incharges will be visiting soon to take stock of the preparations. They will also guide the Punjab unit with their experience," he added.
The BJP is contesting the assembly polls on its own in Punjab for the first time after one of its oldest allies Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) walked away from the alliance last year over the new farm laws. In the last Punjab assembly polls in 2017, the BJP had won only three out of the 23 seats it contested.
After the meeting of Rahul Gandhi with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and T.S. Singh Deo, it is widely expected that the state could see a minor portfolio reshuffle. Singh Deo may be given more importance in the cabinet and it's likely he may be allotted a portfolio soon. Currently he holds the health portfolio.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said he will invite Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Punjab Governor V.P. Badnore and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as guests at the special session.
Chidambaram was addressing a press conference at the fag-end of his two-day visit to the state in the capacity as the All India Congress Committee's senior observer in charge of Goa ahead of the 2022 state assembly polls.
Punjab annually generates 20 million tonnes of paddy straw and this is normally set on fire to quickly clear the fields for the next crop, resulting in choking of the National Capital Region (NCR) in October and November.
Priyanka's remarks came after farmers on Tuesday evening vacated the railway tracks and highways in Punjab after the Amarinder Singh government accepted the demands of the sugarcane farmers.
The 'rebel' legislators reached Dehradun in the morning to apprise Rawat about the mood of the public against the Amarinder Singh-led government in the state. They, among 20-odd party legislators, have been demanding replacement of Amarinder Singh as he failed to fulfill the 2017 poll promises.
