In the run-up to the Assembly polls to six States, including Uttar Pradesh, early next year , BJP President J P Nadda on Saturday held a high-powered meeting of senior party leaders, including several senior Union Ministers and discussed at length political and governance issues linked to these States.
The Covid-19 management in these election-bound states, five of which - UP, Uttarakhand, Goa, Gujarat and Manipur- are BJP-ruled, also came-up for scrutiny. Punjab, which has a Congress government, too will go to polls, early next year.
Party leaders reviewed BJP’s Covid19 management under its programme ‘Seva hi Sanghthan’.
Besides Nadda, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Smriti Irani, and Kiren Rijiju were among those who attended the meeting,
Successful management of Covid19 after the centre and several BJP-ruled state governments faced criticism for them being caught off-guard during the second Coronavirus wave seemed to be a top priority for the BJP, wary of its fallout in the assembly elections.
“Preparation for the assembly polls was the main agenda of the meeting,” said BJP leaders after the meet at party headquarters here.
UP figured prominently in the meet as it has been in the focus for last several months. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally monitoring developments in UP and his virtual review of development plan in Ayodhya with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during the day was a pointer to this.
Yogi had this month visited the national Capital and met Modi and all top-line BJP leaders.
Besides, UP, the BJP leaders also factored anti-incumbency working against its governments in Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Gujarat.
In Uttarakhand, while the BJP brought in a new Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat apparently to beat the anti-incumbency against his predecessor Trivendra Singh Rawat, it also faces a big challenge to retain power in Gujarat where it had an extraordinary-run of 25 years and the Congress, though still unorganised, is seeing a political opportunity to break the BJP citadel even as the AAP is slowly gaining ground in districts like Surat.