Central leadership deputes D. Purandeshwari and Nitin Nabin as in-charge and co-incharge, respectively.
New Delhi: The party cadre of BJP in Chhattisgarh, which was lying low post the rout in the December 2018 elections, when it could win only on 15 of the 90 Assembly seats, has sprung to life in the last couple of months after the central leadership deputed D. Purandeshwari and Nitin Nabin to the state, while making them in-charge and co-incharge respectively of the state.
According to Chhattisgarh BJP party cadre, the Bhupesh Baghel led Congress government, which till November last year, was moving ahead without facing any challenges and probing questions from the opposition party, is now being forced to pull up its act, especially on the subject of farmers’ welfare, on which Nabin and Purandeshwari have been confronting the state government.
Even since being appointed as the co-incharge of Chhattisgarh in November last year, Nitin Nabin has undertaken three visits to Chhattisgarh and, along-with Purandeshwari, has already gone to four of the 28 districts to interact with party workers and cadres on the ground rather than stay in Raipur and call them to their guest houses, as has been the practice in the past.
Nabin, 40, who is a four-time MLA from Bankipore, Patna, Bihar, told The Sunday Guardian that their present focus was to ensure that the farmers of the state are not “harassed and duped” under the Congress government.
“233 farmers have committed suicide in the state in the last one year. The Baghel government was supposed to buy more than 5 lakh jute bags for storing and transporting paddy in view of the bumper monsoon, but they have not even bought 1.5 lakh pieces. They were supposed to buy and transfer 28 lakh tonnes of paddy from the farmers to the Centre; however, by the admission of their own state president, they have only bought 26 lakh tonnes despite getting three extensions. They have till now not given the promised bonus to the farmers. These hard facts and numbers make it clear how serious the state government is when it comes to welfare of farmers. We are protesting in every district, courting arrests on the way farmers are being treated in Chhattisgarh. We have prepared a detailed report on the corrupt practices that are taking place in the state when it comes to farmer welfare activities. We had done extensive protest on 13 January in every Assembly seats; today (22 January) we are protesting at every district headquarters. We will ensure that the farmers get what is due to them,” Nabin told The Sunday Guardian.
According to a veteran party leader, the BJP in the state was in a “sleepy” mode till November last year as all the senior leaders were still reeling under the shock of the loss in the state. “The arrival of Nabin and Purandeshwari and their focus on visiting leaders and workers in their home town has energized the cadre. This new team is giving time-bound task to every functionary which has led to party cadre and leader becoming active,” he said.
Post the election loss in December 2018, the then Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh had confided to his close friends that one of the primary reasons for the party’s rout in the state was his MLAs and party functionaries becoming inaccessible and not going on the ground.
According to Nabin, they (him and Purandeshwari) plan to cover the remaining 24 districts of the state by March-April.
“We plan to cover every district within two-three months to assess the strength and weakness of the organization. We are working by following a detailed roadmap on how to go about it. We will be meeting representatives of Panchayati Raj institutions so that we get the reports from the ground. The party workers of Chhattisgarh are hard-working, they know how to get things done in close coordination with the party views,” he said.
On the question of whether he was facing any interference from senior party leaders like former Chief Minister Raman Singh and party stalwart Brijmohan Agrawal, Nabin said that all the top leaders were helping him in every possible way.
“We have asked the party functionaries to complete the task assigned to them in a time-bound manner and we have made it very clear, we want result-poriented activity from every level worker, leaders. top leaders, including Raman Singhji and Brijmohan Agrawalji are helping us and participating in every programme that we are doing against the state government. There is no question of interference as we all are working for a common goal, which is the well-being of the people and the party,” he said.