New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who was appointed election in-charge of Punjab earlier this month, will visit the state soon. Union ministers, Hardeep Singh Puri and Meenakshi Lekhi and Lok Sabha member Vinod Chavda have been made election co-incharges for Punjab.
BJP Punjab president Ashwani Sharma said that the soon election in-charge and co-inchages will be visiting Punjab in coming weeks to review the party's poll preparedness. "Dates for visit of central leaders have not been fixed but they are visiting soon to take stock of preparations. They will also guide Punjab unit with their experience," Sharma said.
In the run up to the assembly polls scheduled early next year, the BJP Punjab unit has launched several campaigns to strengthen its organisational structure at ground level. Sharma said that work is progressing at good pace for formation of a 21-member committee at each polling booth.
The BJP central leadership has directed all its state units specially five poll bound states to form a booth committee at each polling booth consisting women, youth, Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Caste (OBC) and other sections of society.
The BJP is facing toughest challenge in Punjab in comparison to other four states - Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand -- where polls will be held together in February-March next year.
The BJP is contesting assembly polls on its own in Punjab for the first time after its one of the oldest ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) walked away from alliance last year over new farm laws.
Many party leaders admitted that now the BJP is facing many challenges as party was only confined to some urban pockets.
Sharma claims that now the BJP made its presence felt across the state. "Everyone in the Punjab unit worked hard and expanded the party across the state in last one year and it will be seen in next year assembly polls," Sharma said.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday condemned the Congress government in Punjab for allegedly discriminating against teachers and forcing them to come to the streets, and asked state Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla not to behave in an 'arrogant' and 'dictatorial' manner and resolve the grievances of government school teachers immediately.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Thursday demanded a high court monitored probe into the manner in which the Congress government in Punjab was playing with the people's lives by creating an artificial shortage of vaccines by selling vaccine doses at a hefty profit to private hospitals.
The electronic conversation took place as US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that India will receive Covid vaccines directly from the US stockpile, the White House said.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General M.M. Naravane, reached Kashmir on Wednesday on a two-day visit to review the prevailing security situation in the Union Territory (UT), the army said in a statement.
"There have been several unfounded media reports that have peddled misinformation among the masses regarding this exercise of national importance," a ministry statement said, adding that the total number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the country so far stand at 21,85,46,667.
The Congress said that it was "appropriate for our initial statement to note that the intrusion by Israeli forces into the Holy Al Aqsa mosque during Ramzan prayers had ruptured the delicate peace in the region".
