Three months after his scheduled visit to Punjab to launch a campaign against drugs was called off, the saffron party’s national president Amit Shah on Friday said he would be visiting the State soon. BJP chief Shah shared this information with the party’s Punjab unit president Kamal Sharma during their meeting at Bengaluru where the party is holding its national executive meet. Shah’s much-hyped visit to the holy city of Amritsar was earlier planned for January 22 where the party was to start a campaign against drugs across the State. However, it was deferred in the wake of Delhi assembly polls.
Following Shah’s announcement to visit the State and launch a campaign against drugs in Punjab, the race for credit had started not just with the rivals, but among the allies as well. In an apparent attempt to outdo each other, the Congress, the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had planned independent crusades against the issue of drug menace in the State. While the SAD staged sit-ins at international borders against the Border Security Force (BSF) and “to create awareness” on January 5, the Congress also staged dharnas at all district headquarters on the same day demanding dismissal of SAD-BJP Government “for inciting people against the security forces which amounted to anti-national act”.
Former Chief Minister and Congress MP from Amritsar Capt Amarinder Singh also planned an anti-drug rally to “counter” Shah’s Amritsar rally on January 22. The saffron brigade lagged behind with its leaders deciding to give more importance to capture Delhi earlier, than dealing with the burning drug issue in Punjab as all other parties went ahead with their programmes. As of now, no date has been fixed for Shah's visit. Meanwhile, the national chief also discussed issues related with the state of political activities at the national and state level, among others. During the interaction, BJP’s national secretary Tarun Chugh was also present.
“Amit Shah collected information about Punjab politics, functioning of the State Government and the feedback of people of Punjab over the performance of 10 months of the Union Government,” said Sharma. He said the BJP national president also congratulated him and the State BJP team for its victory in the recently held local bodies’ elections and expressed his gratitude towards the people of the Punjab for their overwhelming support to the party.
Shah further said the membership drive in Punjab has also received tremendous response and the party has been able to enroll five times more members than the past such drives. “The drive has got encouraging response from the rural and Sikh-dominated areas. There are about 50 per cent Sikh in the list of the new members enrolled during the membership drive. Earlier, there were 3.50 lakh members of BJP in Punjab but now the figure has crossed 18.50 lakhs under the ongoing membership drive,” said Sharma.
Sharma also met Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and took up the issue of crop damage in the State due to untimely rains. Requesting to compensate the affected farmers, Sharma told the Minister that Punjab contributes maximum to the nation’s food bowl but due to rains in the months of the February and March, wheat and potato produce have been damaged. Radha Mohan has assured to sympathetically consider the demand, he said.