The saffron party has decided to send seniors to flag off the yatras at different places.
Jaipur
The election campaign heat is gradually picking up in Rajasthan. While Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is giving a boost to Congress’ campaign on the basis of welfare schemes, the BJP is in the battle field completely banking on the central leadership.
The BJP is kick-starting “Parivartan Yatras” from four Hindu religious places in poll-bound on 2 September. These yatras will cover all 200 assembly constituencies. After the conclusion of these yatras, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a rally in Jaipur Dehat on 25 September. Earlier, it was decided that these yatras will be led by former CM Vasundhara Raje, State BJP president C.P. Joshi, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and former state BJP chief Satish Poonia. But now state election management committee chairman Narayan Panchariya has announced that these leaders will only participate in the yatras. These yatras are being organised on the lines of ones carried out by Poonia from Mewar, Wagad, Shekhawati, Marwar, Eastern Rajasthan, etc when he was state BJP chief. He also visited 195 Assembly seats four to five times. He travelled around four lakh kilometres in the state.
But Poonia was removed from the post of BJP chief all of a sudden. BJP strategists believe that removal of Poonia as party chief was a mistake. In fact, Poonia belongs to the influential Jat community. Moreover, he played a pivotal role in creating a favourable atmosphere for the BJP in Rajasthan by dint of hard work over four years. Poonia’s removal sent a wrong message to the Jat community. Now realising the mistake, the leadership is again relying on Poonia’s capabilities. Meanwhile, Raje camp believes she would be given the charge of the campaign committee which is yet to be announced. Supporters are confident that Raje would be projected as CM face. The debate in the BJP is on two lines. One, BJP feels that it can win polls on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma. Secondly, it also believes that if Raje is not projected as CM face, the going will be tough for the BJP in the upcoming elections. The party cannot ignore the fact that CM Gehlot has consolidated Congress’ position with the help of his schemes. Confident of repeating its government after polls in November, the Congress is already in a position to give BJP a tough fight. With this in view, the BJP is launching yatras from famous religious places of Hindu community. This is also being linked to BJP’s move to push ‘polarisation politics’ ahead of polls.
Therefore, the saffron party has decided to send seniors to flag off the yatras at different places. BJP president J.P. Nadda will flag off the yatra on 2 September from Trinetra Ganesh Mandir, Sawai Madhopur. After this, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will flag off a yatra from Venudham at Dungarpur on 3 September. This yatra will conclude in Kota covering 52 seats.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will commence the third yatra from Ramdevra, Jaisalmer on 4 September. This yatra will end in Jodhpur covering 51 seats. The fourth yatra is scheduled to begin from Gogamedi, Hanumangarh and will be flagged off by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. This yatra will conclude in Alwar. During these yatras, BJP leaders will showcase the Central government’s achievements. These yatras will cover the entire state. BJP will try to give a boost to its campaign and woo voters of the state. The party will also conduct surveys to ascertain the mood of the voters. Following this, BJP will be announcing its campaign committee.