BJP hints at going solo in 2017 Punjab elections

CHANDIGARH: The BJP — the coalition partner of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab — has hinted at its intention to contest the 2017 assembly polls on its own.

“Strong party structure paves way for a strong government and now our focus is on Punjab where we want to strengthen party’s base,” said BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is also the in-charge of party’s national mass contact programme.

“To contest alone or jointly with the SAD is the decision of the state unit of the party or the national leadership,” said Vijayvargiya, a minister in Madhya Pradesh cabinet holding environment and urban local bodies portfolio. He is expected to resign from the MP cabinet and focus on party affairs.

Vijayvargiya is here to supervise the membership drive of party’s Punjab unit that has added more than 23 lakh members.

On Sunday, Vijayvargiya supervised meetings with the newly made members in various constituencies of Punjab. “In all 117 constituencies, 16,000 active members have been selected who would further play a key role in the elections,” said the BJP leader.

The BJP plans to draw out a strategy to reach out to primary members and voters.

“We are the world’s largest political party with 11 crore members across the nation,” he said.

BJP’s Punjab president Kamal Sharma said the party would take up the shifting of convicted terrorists to Punjab jails with the SAD soon.

“We weren’t taken into confidence before Devinderpal Singh Bhullar and Gurdeep Singh Khera were shifted to Amritsar. We will highlight the issue during the SAD-BJP coordination committee meeting,” said Sharma.