BJP leaders brainstorm over election roadmap

The BJP is in election mode with top leaders, including chief minister Vasundhara Raje, state incharges and all elected representatives holding a brainstorming session in Jaipur on Friday to decide the strategy for the assembly elections.

State incharges Avinash Rai Khanna and Gopal Shetty, BJP’s national joint general secretary (organisation) V Satish, chief minister Raje, organisation general secretary Chandrashekhar, party MPs, MLAs, district incharges, mandal incharges, presidents of various boards, corporations, UIT chairmen, zila pramukhs and heads of various BJP cells participated in the meeting.

Outgoing state BJP president Ashok Parnami was asked to give suggestions on the strategy to be adopted for the elections and the roadmap for the polls was also discussed.

“The meeting took note of the negative propaganda by the Congress, which is misleading the people of the state. Our workers and core team will work to put an end to this and give them a befitting reply,” Parnami told reporters after a five-hour marathon meeting.

“Congress is indulging in loose talk and we will put a stop to it and will publicise steps taken by our government for the welfare of the people.”

He said that the chief minister would not be taking out a yatra this time around. “This time the yatra will be taken out by ministers, who will travel across the state in groups of three and will go among people and talk about welfare programmes of the state and central government,” he said.

“When the yatras reach the division headquarters, the chief minister will join the ministers at the end of the yatras,” he added.

Asked why the CM was not taking out the yatra this time, Parnami replied, “The chief minister took out a yatra when we were not in government. We took out the yatra to form the government in the state. Now, we are in power and our ministers will go among the people to talk about the works done by our government.”

Asked about the differences within the organisations between workers and elected representatives, Parnami said, “Ours is the only party that does self-assessment. On that basis we remove any shortcomings and strengthen the organisation,” said Parnami.

Taking a dig at the Congress, he said, “Don’t you see the opposition and confrontation between elected representatives and the party organisation in the Congress? But the Congress does not do self-assessment to eliminate any shortcomings.”

Asked about a confrontation between a party MLA and a minister over transfers, Parnami said “You can’t link a stray transfer to lack of coordination within the party. This is not an issue. Transfers will happen according to policy.”

Parnami dodged questions on the absence of a state president for almost 45 days and said, “In the BJP, whether it is the state president or the national president or state office bearers, we all work as kayakartas and elected representatives.” Speaking about BJP national president Amit Shah coming to Jaipur and the appointment of state BJP president, Parnami said both will happen “very soon”.