BJP core group holds meeting, discusses organisational issues

LUCKNOW: The BJP core group in Uttar Pradesh met at the party office in Lucknow and remained closeted till late in the night. The party refused to divulge details of the closed-door interaction .

Those present at the meeting included chief minister Yogi Adityanath, UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, UP BJP in-charge and union health minister JP Nadda, along with his co-incharges. The meeting came soon after a roadshow by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, party general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi ‘Vadra’ and Jyotiraditya Scindia ended in Lucknow earlier in the day. Asked if the core group meeting also discussed the ‘Priyanka factor’ in UP politics, BJP leader Navin Srivastava said, “Priyanka is no factor for us, nor is the SP-BSP combination, which in any way is hand in glove with the Congress. We are confident of winning the 2019 LS polls on the basis of the quality and purity of our top leadership and the work we have done.” The core group discussed organisational issues, he said.

From Tuesday, the BJP is launching a five-day ‘mera ghar bhajapa ka ghar’ (my house, BJP house) campaign under which all party cadres would affix BJP stickers and banners in their homes.

The BJP also launched a donation campaign, urging the cadres to donate anything between Rs 5 and Rs 1000. The donation amount is being called ‘samarpan rashi’. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma and UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey and general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, along with other leaders, donated Rs 1,000 each to the party fund.