less than a fortnight after BJP national president Amit Shah’s visit to Punjab, the party high command has sent its envoy to ascertain compliance of his directions.
Shah has assigned the job to party’s national vice-president and MP Saroj Pandey who held a series of meetings with the party leaders on Tuesday to review the working in the state.
Alarmed by its downward journey, especially in Punjab, at the time when the 2019 elections are just a few months away, the saffron party has actually switched into an election mode. Eyeing second consecutive term, the party is taking strong decisions and counting every single seat at the national level.
As of now, BJP is reduced to just three seats in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, and one in the lok Sabha from the state.
“Amit Shah had visited Chandigarh in past week, and held meetings with the State office bearers and district presidents to review the work done by the workers in Punjab. And now I have reviewed the work done by the workers in Punjab on his orders,” said Pandey.
The working of all the party morchas (wings) was reviewed in detail. After the review, all the wings have been directed to make its units stronger at the district, mandal and booth levels.
Shah had visited Punjab after the party faced resounding defeats not only at the national level, but also in the several by-elections in various states, including Punjab. In the results announced on May 31, BJP could won just two seats out of the total 14 by-polls held across many states, bringing its total tally in the lok Sabha to 274 — just above the absolute majority.
In Punjab, SAD lost its pocket borough Shahkot after over two decades. Shahkot assembly by-poll loss came after the SAD-BJP coalition’s defeat in Gurdaspur lok Sabha bye-election the previous year, coupled with loss in municipal body elections.
Now with Punjab and Karnataka being the only major states in the country ruled by the Congress, the saffron party is taking extra care to ensure the party and its ally do well in the ensuing elections.
To resolve the issues, including seat sharing between the two decades-old alliance partners, Shah had also directed to set up a coordination panel comprising leaders from the both parties.
A meeting of the state BJP core group, office bearers and district presidents was held on Tuesday, under the leadership of Punjab BJP chief Shwait Malik, regarding the upcoming lok Sabha elections 2019, attended by nearly 70 leaders.
During the meeting, the party reviewed the programmes held in the state from May 26 to June 11 on the completion of four years of Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
“It was reiterated in the meeting that the party should make the people aware about Modi government’s achievements as the Centre has initiated various schemes from almost every section of society,” a senior BJP leader told The Pioneer.
The leader said that the BJP is aiming to win 300 seats in the upcoming lok Sabha elections, and “in Punjab, the party contests on 13 seats in alliance with the SAD, which it would aim to win to make Modi the Prime Minister again”.