In a run up to 2017 Punjab State Assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to come in “close and direct contact” with the people of the State.
For the same, the saffron party has ‘strategically’ asked its Cabinet Ministers to be available at its party headquarters in Chandigarh’s Sector-37 on every Wednesday “at particular time” to hear people’s grievances and complaints.
The newly appointed State party president Vijay Sampla, also the Union Cabinet Minister, will also be available for hearing grievances and complaints on Wednesdays between 10 am to 1 pm. Punjab BJP unit, ahead 2012 State Assembly polls, had issued similar directions to its Ministers.
“We are reinitiating our ‘Sahyog’ project, under which party president and all four Ministers will be available to the party workers on every Wednesday from 10 am to 1 pm at Punjab BJP headquarters in Chandigarh,” a senior BJP leader told The Pioneer.
BJP has four Ministers — Bhagat Chunni lal, Anil Joshi, Madan Mohan Mittal and Surjit Jayani — in the State Cabinet, besides five Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS), out of its total 12 legislators.
“This provides an easy and hassle-free platform not only to the ministers to meet the people. Sometimes, work relates to more than one department, and when all party Ministers are under one roof at the same time, it can be looked into right then,” said the BJP leader. But, as the move came just about nine months before the Assembly elections, its real motive is quite evident.