Gurugram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Members of Parliament of the Bharatiya Janata Party from Haryana to gear up for the state assembly elections in October and make an all-out effort to secure a win for the party.
In an interaction with the MPs earlier this week, the prime minister exhorted the MPs to ensure that the benefits of Centre’s schemes reach the poor, leaders who attended the meeting said.
“It was mostly gupshup (casual discussion). Modi ji has special inclination towards Haryana because he was BJP’s incharge for the state before he took over as chief minister in Gujarat in 2001,” said Subhash Barala, Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana.
He added, “He (Modi) recalled those times, when the BJP had formed a government with Bansi Lal’s Haryana Vikas Party in 1996, among other things. Discussions were also held on the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana.”
Barala told ThePrint, “The prime minister also told us to ensure that the fruits of the welfare schemes launched by the central government reach their beneficiaries. He was particularly focussed on initiatives for the poor.”
Asked whether the results of the Lok Sabha polls in the state — where the BJP lost five of the 10 seats to Congress — were also discussed, he said, “That is a thing of the past now. Modi ji’s attitude is about looking forward. He doesn’t believe in brooding over the past. The discussion on Lok Sabha results was held with the concerned people when the results came. But that doesn’t mean that the party will be stuck on that forever.”
All five Lok Sabha MPs of the BJP were in attendance at Monday’s meeting — Naveen Jindal, Dharamvir Singh, and Union ministers Manohar Lal Khattar, Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar.
Besides them, Rajya Sabha MPs Krishan Panwar and Subhash Barala, and Independent Rajya Sabha MP supporting the BJP, Kartikeya Sharma, were also present.
Sharma told ThePrint that Modi gave the MPs his own feedback about Haryana, and also sought the views of the MPs in return.
“Beyond this, it would not be appropriate for me to divulge as to what transpired between us MPs and the Prime Minister of the country,” he said.
Haryana is among the three states set to go to polls later this year, with Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
In the general elections in May, the BJP, which had won all 10 seats in the state in 2019, lost five seats to the Congress. Of the 90 assembly segments, BJP secured a lead in 44 seats, while the INDIA bloc, comprising Congress and Aam Aadmi Party in Haryana, led on 46 seats.
BJP’s vote share — at 46.11 percent — was also less than INDIA’s 47.61 percent.
The Nayab Saini-led BJP government in Haryana has announced a number of sops and schemes for different sections of the population after the Lok Sabha poll verdict. In addition, the party is also making efforts to secure the Other Backward Classes (OBC) vote bank. OBCs constitute the single largest chunk of voters in Haryana.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)