New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is unhappy with the ‘poor’ response to the BJP’s Parivartan Yatras that concluded earlier this week in poll-bound Rajasthan, ThePrint has learnt.
At a meeting of the party’s core group Wednesday, Shah expressed displeasure over reports of poor turnout at the yatras and slammed the state unit for their failure to “create a momentum”, multiple leaders privy to the deliberations at the meeting told ThePrint.
“He also said there was no consistency in the party programmes and that leaders need to give more time to organisational activities,” said a party leader on condition of anonymity.
Shah and party president J. P. Nadda held a meeting with the core group of the party, which included former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, party state president C.P. Joshi, Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Arjun Ram Meghwal, former state president Satish Poonia, Leader of Opposition in state assembly Rajendra Rathore, state election in–charge Pralhad Joshi and Jaipur Rural MP Rajyavardhan Rathore.
Nadda and Shah had flagged off the first two legs of the Parivartan Yatra in Rajasthan on 2 and 3 September. Two other yatras were flagged off by Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari. Covering a total distance of 9,000 km, the series of yatras concluded this Monday with a public meeting addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jaipur.
The yatras were supposed to mobilise the BJP cadre and the people in the run-up to assembly elections but have ended up exposing fault lines in the state unit.
“Due to factionalism and indifference of some party leaders, there were protests in some of the areas during the Parivartan Yatra…there were also a few cases of fights taking place over making welcome speeches. Nadda ji and Amit Shah ji had the complete report of all the controversies that took place during the yatra,” said a state BJP functionary.
The functionary added: “The yatras have caused embarrassment to the party due to the thin crowd at many places. The BJP cadre is known for its organisational skills and the fact that leaders could not gather crowds is being seen as a major issue.”
Infighting, lack of cohesion
The Rajasthan BJP has been a divided house with the party high command refusing to declare former CM Vasundhara Raje as its chief ministerial face, triggering a scramble by at least half-a-dozen contenders. The infighting has exposed lack of cohesion in the organisation barely a month before the elections.
A party source said that while the state unit gave the feedback that Raje did not participate in the yatra ‘wholeheartedly’, the high command were also given to understand that she was not invited by the state unit to participate, apart from the yatras launched by central leaders.
During the meeting, Shah asked all the leaders to strengthen the organisation at the grassroots level, conduct more programmes to reach out to voters and to energise the cadre. “Amit Shah made it clear that party leaders need to devote more time to organisational work and need to create momentum for the elections. He said specific responsibilities need to be given to individual leaders and a regular feedback mechanism needs to be in place,” the source said.
The source added that with so many power centres in the state unit, the message from the central leadership was clear — work together to ensure a win in the assembly elections.
A discussion on the seats and ticket distribution also took place during the meeting. “The party might deploy the same strategy as that used in Madhya Pradesh of fielding sitting MPs and ministers,” he said.
While a meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the BJP is all set to take place Sunday wherein Rajasthan seats are likely to be discussed, a party leader said it is unlikely that a formal declaration would be done as ‘pitr-paksh’ (the period when Hindus pay homage to their ancestors) has started.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)