Shah, Nadda hold core group meeting on Guj
NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda on Tuesday held deliberations with the party’s Gujarat core group in a meeting that is likely to pave the way for the announcement of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections, people familiar with the development said.
Voting for the elections to the 182-member Gujarat legislative assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, and the results will be announced on December 8. The core group meeting in Delhi, which was attended by Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, party’s state unit president CR Patil, and other senior leaders, will be followed by the BJP central election committee meeting on Wednesday, party functionaries said.
Shah, Nadda, and senior leaders from the BJP’s state unit will hold separate discussions on campaigning for the upcoming polls, a party functionary said, requesting anonymity. Having set a target of winning over 150 state seats, the BJP has decided to launch the “Agrasar Gujarat” campaign covering all 182 assembly constituencies to get feedback from over 10 million residents on what they think should be done to further develop the state. The party will soon release its vision document for Gujarat, the functionary added. Several central ministers will be deputed ahead of the crucial elections to interact with voters across the state and seek their views on new policies and suggestions to address existing challenges, a second functionary said.
“Senior leaders including members of the state unit will travel to all constituencies, make door-todoor stopovers to interact with people...organise specific meetings for different groups such as professionals, artists, farmers, women, and the youth,” the second functionary said, also asking not to be named.
A schedule has also been drawn up for Union ministers to travel to various parts of the state and interact with voters. For instance, Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal will interact with working professionals in Surat, while his colleague Mahendra Nath Pandey (heavy industries minister) will interact with street vendors and industrial workers. Tejasvi Surya, the Bengaluru South MP who heads the youth wing of the BJP, will interact with firsttime voters. “Ministers Anurag Thakur, Smriti Irani, Giriraj Singh and Parshottam Rupala will all be travelling to various parts of the state as part of the outreach,” the second functionary said.
Voters will be able to give suggestions through missed calls to a number — 7878182182 — or through the party’s website, and suggestion boxes that will be put up in all constituencies.