PM Modi, Amit Shah to intensify BJP Lok Sabha poll campaign in Uttarakhand
Lok Sabha Elections 2019: The general view among the Uttarakhand unit of BJP is that both PM Modi and national president Amit Shah would have to be roped in to give a boost to its electoral prospects owing to the strained relations among its top local leaders.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah are likely to launch the second phase of the party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in Uttarakhand where it faces challenge of retaining all the five parliamentary seats.
“Both of our top party leaders will launch the second phase of its poll campaign in the state by addressing a public meeting each. They will launch the campaign after the poll code is enforced in the country,” said a top leader of the BJP’s state unit.
In fact, the general view among the party’s state unit is both Modi and Shah would have to be roped in to give a boost to its electoral prospects owing to the strained relations among its top local leaders.
The issue also came up for discussion at the closed-door meeting of the party’s core group held in Dehradun recently.
BJP national general secretary (organisation) Ramlal, who presided over the meeting, also urged the party’s top state leaders to sink their differences and unitedly fight the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP leader “proffered” the advice in view of the growing friction between its sitting parliamentarians and senior leaders who are lobbying for tickets for the five Lok Sabha seats.
This friction, for instance, intensified between the Member of Parliament from Tehri, Mala Rajlakshmi Shah and former Congress heavyweight Vijay Bahuguna.
Both are said to have been harbouring serious differences following reports that the former chief minister has been lobbying or a ticket from Tehri. In fact, Shah was said have vociferously raised the issue in one of the party’s internal meetings.
Similar differences among the BJP’s top leaders cropped up after party veteran and its sitting MP from Nainital expressed his unwillingness to re-contest.
Following his refusal two more party veterans have openly expressed to contest from Naintial. One of these is former Congress heavyweight Yashpal Arya, who is currently a minister in the Trivendra Singh Rawat-led BJP government.
Similarly, party veteran and legislator Bansidhar Bhagat also staked his claim to contest from the same high profile parliamentary seat.
BJP state unit general secretary Naresh Bansal denied such differences but said Prime Minister Modi and party chief Shah could address a public meeting each somewhere in Kumaon and Garhwal.
“In that connection, requests had been made to the party’s central leadership to spare dates so that a public meeting of both our top leaders could be held in the state,” he said referring to Modi and Shah.
Apart from them, our other senior leaders like Union cabinet ministers Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj would also address public meetings in the state, Bansal said.
The Prime Minister did address a public meeting at Rudrapur on February 14 but he preferred to do so via mobile phone from the Corbett National Park.
Bsansal, however, said the members of the party’s core group drew a two pronged road map pertaining to the party’s poll campaign.
As part of this initiative all the BJP’s state and district units and those monitoring the areas falling in more than 11,000 polling booths had been directed to publicise among the people all pro-poor schemes introduced by the BJP government at the Centre.
“Besides, party workers have also been asked to intensify the campaign in the five parliamentary constituencies and all their 70 assembly segments,” he said.
BJP leader Ajendra Ajay said the party’s social media unit had also been asked to step up the poll campaign on all platforms.
