BJP focuses on strategy to win 3 bypolls in Himachal

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, June 25

The two-day meeting of the extended core group of BJP began here today under the chairmanship of BL Santosh, national general secretary of the party. Most senior leaders of party like party in-charge of Himachal Avinash Rai Khanna, co-incharge Sanjay Tandon, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur and all ministers of the Himachal Cabinet attended the meeting.

The party leaders dwelled on strategies for winning the forthcoming byelections to the Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai Assembly constituencies and the Mandi parliamentary constituency. The BJP leaders don’t want to leave any stone unturned to win the byelections as these would set the tone for the Assembly elections to be held next year.

For Mission Repeat 2022, the sources said that the senior leaders also discussed the performance of various MLAs. They also discussed strategies to beat anti-incumbency in the state. Former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar, who was also invited, did not attend the meeting today. Party spokesperson Randhir Sharma, when asked about Shanta Kumar’s absence, said that he would attend the meeting tomorrow.

The meeting was held in camera and even BJP MLAs were not invited.

The sources said that the meeting was organised to assess the impact of Covid and the price rise on the popularity of the party. The leaders suggested strategies for how to tackle the issues of rising unemployment and the price rise, which the party attributes to the pandemic and its economic impact.

The meeting entrusted the responsibilities of various wings such as panna pramukhs, mahila wing, Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha to party workers. How the party workers associated with these wings would approach people and explain to them the steps taken by the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre during the pandemic was also discussed.

The state ministers and MLAs have already submitted detailed reports to the party on how they helped people during the pandemic. The party workers were directed to convey the work done by the ministers and the MLAs to the people.