BJP chief JP Nadda tries to quell bickering in party

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 21

BJP national president JP Nadda today urged party men not to get impatient as the party wins elections not for power but to serve the poor and the deprived.

Nadda was accorded a rousing welcome on his arrival at the Luhnu Ground in Bilaspur. This is Nadda’s first visit to his home district after the party’s resounding victory in the Bihar Assembly elections. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, state BJP president Suresh Bhardwaj, ministers, party MLAs and office-bearers were present on the occasion.

“There are times when you (workers) have tried to make me impatient and impulsive also but I want to tell you to have patience,” he said. Political analysts say this was an oblique reference to the recent bickering between supporters of former Chief Minister PK Dhumal and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. There had also been a verbal public duel between the Chief Minister and Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur.

Nadda also held a meeting with the BJP legislators to set the ball rolling for the party’s preparedness for the 2022 Assembly elections. He said that the party’s governments at the Centre and in the state had ensured development and several mega projects such as highways, a cancer hospital, and an AIIMS had been sanctioned.

He said that the big responsibility given to him was all because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s faith in him and the hard work and the labour of the party workers of Himachal, who are his strength. “It is due to your support right from the beginning that I have been able to achieve these heights,” he said.

Nadda thanked people for supporting the BJP not just in Bihar but also across the length and breadth of the country. “It is after a long gap during the coronavirus pandemic that I could come here to meet you all due to a strict protocol,” he said. He thanked people for maintaining social distancing during the function.