‘Avoid trips to Delhi, engage with people’: Nitin Nabin chairs state BJP in-charges meet ahead of key polls

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Nabin on Tuesday chaired a meeting of the party’s state in-charges and co-in-charges in New Delhi to draw up plans for the upcoming assembly elections in five states next year and oversee other organisational issues, people familiar with the matter said.

The meeting comes at a time when the party is facing multiple challenges from student protests to the opposition accusing the government of electoral irregularities. The BJP-led Union government has come under sharp attack from the Opposition, which has accused it of influencing the Election Commission of India (ECI) following reports that there was disagreement in the poll panel over the conduct of special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

According to a person aware of the details, the party chief asked the office bearers to spend more time in their respective work areas and said frequent dashes to the national capital should be avoided.

“He said the leaders need to focus on issues that have wider ramification on the party’s electoral fortunes. He also instructed the leaders to reach out to people irrespective of their background or political affiliation,” said the person quoted above.

In states with more than two co-in-charges the teams have been instructed to divide work so that each region (of the state) can be overseen by a functionary. “The idea is to maximize outreach. Each leader will meet a cross section of people irrespective of their political background or faith,” said a second functionary.

For instance in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh where national general secretary Vinod Tawde is in-charge with four others as co-in-charges, a meeting for work allocation will be held soon. The same process will be followed in other states.

The first functionary quoted above said, in the poll-bound states particularly, the exercise will be carried out to ensure there are no gaps in outreach.

“The UP In-charge and all co-in-charges will visit Lucknow on October 1, which will be followed by a meeting with chief minister Yogi Adityanath and discussions with the state office bearers and key leaders. They will then proceed for a tour of the state and begin meetings with various caste groups, intellectuals, professionals and so on,” said the first leader.

The party leaders at the state level will also sharpen their attack on the Opposition for casting aspersions on the poll panel.“The meeting was to give the office bearers a lowdown of work they will be required to perform for the organisation, politically and for social service,” said the second functionary.

Meanwhile, the BJP accused the Congress of keeping double standards on SIR. BJP national general secretary Smriti Irani said the Congress has been attacking the constitution, institutions and democratic processes instead of reflecting on the reasons for its defeat.“Does the Congress give a clean chit to the EC in states where it is in power? If there are dead, duplicate names on the voters list, why does it want these names to be restored?” Irani said addressing the media.