With Indian political battlefield 2014 few months away, the Chandigarh BJP has pinned its hopes on party’s stalwarts to maximise its electoral prospects.
Ahead of the announcement of high-octane lok Sabha elections 2014, the city party unit has put in a request to a number of Central BJP leaders to visit the city and address party workers and public rallies.
After the visit of senior party leaders in last few months, party’s Prime Ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj are now likely to visit the city aiming to woo the city voters. While senior leader Sushma Swaraj is likely to visit Chandigarh in October, Modi’s visit to the city is expected in November.
Recently, party President Rajnath Singh, the leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, national general secretary JP Nadda, national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao among others had visited the city.
Although the parliamentary elections are yet to be announced, the city party unit is leaving no stone unturned to bring in party’s bigwigs here.
During his recent meeting with Modi, Chandigarh BJP president Sanjay Tandon had extended an invitation to Modi to visit the city. Modi, being the incharge of the party units of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh from the year 1996 to 1999, had looked after the election campaigns in the north region.
And, it was during his tenure as the in-charge of the party unit that the BJP witnessed its two victories in the lok Sabha elections from Chandigarh. BJP’s Satya Pal Jain had won from the city parliamentary seat in the years 1996 and 1998.
A senior party leader said that the city BJP has invited BJP’s bigwigs to garner maximum support for the party prior to the lok Sabha elections. He said that as the senior leaders would get busy in assembly elections scheduled in five states later this year, the city party unit is giving a best shot for seeking their assistance prior to the assembly polls.
When contacted, Sanjay Tandon, Chandigarh BJP chief said that the leader of opposition in lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj is likely to visit the city this month. We have also requested party’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to visit Chandigarh later.
He said, “We have already initiated preparations for the lok Sabha elections 2014. The city party unit is trying that central BJP leaders visit the city to boost the morale of party workers and address public rallies.”
With an eye on the lok Sabha elections 2014, Chandigarh BJP had recently constituted campaign committee, manifesto committee, publicity and propaganda committee, specific contact committee, public participation and opinion assessment committee, program and transport committee among others. The city BJP has also initiated the process to constitute separate committees at all 449 booths in Chandigarh.
The total number of voters in Chandigarh is pegged at 5.5 lakh. And, about 68,000 new names were added to the voter list of the city published on January 15, 2013. More than 45 percent of the voters in Chandigarh are between 18 to 35 years of age.