The party has told its state unit leaders to choose between organisation and electoral politics so as to provide every worker in the party a fair opportunity.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership has made it clear that contenders for tickets for the ensuing Assembly polls in four states—Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Delhi—must stay away from occupying key posts in the party organisation.
At a time when the BJP is holding organisational elections across the country while also simultaneously preparing for the Assembly polls, the party has told its state unit leaders to choose between organisation and electoral politics so as to provide every worker in the party a fair opportunity.
BJP’s national in-charge for organisation polls, Radha Mohan Singh, on Friday said that those contending for the BJP tickets in Assembly elections must stay away from the organisation polls. Similarly, those willing to work for the organisation should only work to ensure the party’s victory in the upcoming elections and not aspire to contest the elections themselves. He also warned the local BJP units from indulging in nepotism so as to ensure free and fair polls.
He said a strong organisation was an important key to electoral success of the party and hence it was crucial to draw a line between the two. Singh was addressing a meeting of BJP office bearers and workers in Delhi on Friday. In Delhi BJP, the organisation polls are likely to be finished by December amid speculations of early elections.
The process of organisation polls in BJP will start from 11 September. As per the schedule, the elections of BJP state unit presidents will be held by mid-December, while the national BJP president will be elected by 30 December.
In the meeting, Singh particularly warned the state unit leaders from indulging in nepotism. Sources said the state and district level election in-charge will examine every candidature for the organisation polls and ensure that relatives or immediate family members of a candidate do not contend for the Assembly ticket and vice versa.
The move, sources said, came in the wake of complaints against the present team of office bearers in Delhi who have been lobbying for party tickets for the Assembly polls.
Also, a number of office bearers were also pitching for their relatives to be given posts in the state and district BJP units. The development assumes greater significance as the Delhi BJP is divided in various factions along the communities and some of the factions opposed to the leadership of Manoj Tiwari, a poorvanchali leader.
In order to bring the wary factions together, the BJP has appointed Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar, Hardeep Singh Puri and Nityanand Rai the in-charge for Assembly polls in Delhi. The three ministers are likely to hold their first meeting with the Delhi BJP unit next week, sources said.
On Friday, the BJP also appointed election in-charge in each of the 14 districts in Delhi and assigned them the election duties to be completed within the stipulated time frame. According to the schedule, the poll process will begin with election of the booth level units followed by the block level presidents.
This will be completed by 30 September. Following this, the district level presidents will be elected and the process will be completed by 30 November. After the district level presidents, election process will begin for the state unit presidents, he said. At last, elections will be held for the BJP national president. At present, J.P. Nadda has been appointed the working president of BJP.