To gear up the party machinery in the region for upcoming lok Sabha elections 2014, BJP president Rajnath Singh has arrived in Chandigarh here on Sunday on a two-day visit to meet party leaders in the region.
Rajnath, who played a key role in declaring Narendra Modi as party’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the upcoming lok Sabha elections, is scheduled to hold separate meetings with members of the party’s core committees of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir on September 23. He will chair meeting of Haryana core committee members at 9 am at Punjab Bhawan, followed by meetings with Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir leaders here. Ram Bilas Sharma, president of Haryana BJP while talking to The Pioneer, said that 17 senior Haryana BJP leaders will be present in the core committee meeting.
“Several important issues regarding upcoming parliamentary elections including sharing of tickets with our ally Haryana Janhit Congress (Bl) in the State, booth management and also strategy for the elections will be discussed with our party president here”, said Sharma. “Though we already have an understanding with HJC on seats sharing, the final decision will be taken by our party president. For lok Sabha elections, out of ten lok Sabha seats-BJP will contest on eight and two seats will be given to HJC. Similarly, for assembly elections, BJP and HJC will contest on 50-50 ratio i.e. 45-45 seats each,” added Sharma.
He added that BJP has decided to organise a coordination committee meeting at Kurukshetra on September 30 to finalise issues related to seats sharing for lok Sabha elections. Sharma also ruled out any possibility of alliance with Indian National lok Dal (INlD) for upcoming elections and reiterated that we have an alliance with HJC and need no other alliance. Meanwhile, according to the sources, a group of BJP leaders in Haryana and at national level want an alliance with INlD to get ‘Jaat votes’ in the State.