Gandhinagar June 29 The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is focusing on the preparations for the by-elections due for eight vacant seats in Gujarat. The by-elections necessitated after eight Congress MLAs resigned from the post. Many of these Congress leaders had joined the BJP.
A meeting is underway held at the state party headquarters at 'Kamalam' in Gandhinagar, headed by the state party chief Jitu Vaghani.
A core committee meeting of the Gujarat BJP commenced at Kamalam on Monday, to chart out the planning and strategy for a horde of elections that are slated in the coming months. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and other Gujarat cabinet ministers were present at the meeting, which is being chaired by Vaghani.
The elections for local body authorities like six Municipal Corporations, district and Taluka Panchayats have been announced recently by the State Election Commission. Moreover, the by-elections for the recently vacated eight Assembly seats, are also on the cards. The meeting is expected to draw a strategy for the campaigning, nominations and take decision about the candidates etc.
The BJP, which has been ruling the state for almost 24 years, has got its task cut out this year, as the party will be surrounded by a horde of issues, the state has been experiencing. Right now, there are multiple problems the ruling party is facing right now like the Lok Rakshak Dal (LRD) recruitment issue, rising unemployment, GTU exams, soaring fuel prices, the rising number of coronavirus deaths, farmers agitation etc.
In the past too, the BJP has successfully tackled agitations like Patidar agitation, OBC unrest etc. during polling time. But during the last such elections, it narrowly survived and managed to pull through to form government in the state.
Besides these public issues, the party would also be having an inside dissent and will have to mull over whether to just use the influence of the newly inducted former Congress legislators or whether to field them in their constituencies, bearing the brunt of party loyal workers.
( With inputs from IANS )