With the Assembly elections just three months away, State BJP leaders want the central leadership to declare immediately the face who will lead the party into the elections.
“The BJP has successfully experimented the same in the lok Sabha elections. This should be replicated in Jharkhand which has been plagued by the fractured mandate since its birth in 2000,” pointed out a senior BJP leader requesting anonymity.
The BJP leader maintained that the time for collective leadership, ostensibly a device to keep all the contenders in good humour ahead of elections, is over. “We have got the results of empowering Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhra Raje and Raman Singh as regional leaders. Now, it is time that the central leadership takes a call in case of Jharkhand too, he pointed out.
Senior BJP leader Saryu Roy has already cautioned the State leadership not to remain complacent in view of the nation-wide Modi wave as local issues influence the voting pattern in the Assembly elections. Also, the BJP has to fight strong tribal regional leaders like Shibu Soren and Babulal Marandi in Jharkhand. “So, any delay in projecting a leader might prove costly for the party,” pointed out another BJP leader.
“People vote in the Assembly elections for the leader who will guide them and becomes the Chief Minister,” he added. Incidentally, a small section of State BJP leaders has kicked off an unseemly theory of projecting a non-tribal leader to lead the campaign in the Assembly elections. They believed that the BJP could trash the convention under NaMo impact and get a non-tribal Chief Minister to lead the State.