Leaders of the ruling BJP have embarked on a fortnight of political yatras to check the public mood in the state. These yatras are a prelude to chief minister’s upcoming tour. Sangeeta Pranvendra charts the political journey of the party
Rajasthan BJP is going back to the drawing board. After the recent bypoll debacle, there has been a need to check the ground reality across the state before the assembly polls, which are scheduled to be held during the year-end.
All these have prompted the saffron party to adopt a different strategy.
The BJP has thrust all its forces in the form of 35 party strongmen who are ministers in the state and the Centre, MPs, party functionaries, leaders holding constitutional posts and senior leaders. They will be going on a fortnight-long series of yatras (tours) across the length and breadth of the state.
Each leader has been assigned a specific district. They have already started moving out with specific tasks and will have to submit a report on their return. The information gathered from these yatras is expected to shape and pave the way for the chief minister’s yatra scheduled on April 15.
The ruling BJP in Rajasthan faces the challenge of returning to power, something that has not been achieved by any party over the last several decades. BJP has realised that for this, it needs to consolidate all its forces.
This includes all present and past postholders at the district level, all leaders who moved away from the party and its ideological associates. The yatras would be closely monitored by the BJP organisation and the report gathered from these yatras would be crucial for deciding a poll strategy.
Purpose of Tours
The yatras have a two-fold purpose; One is to get the disgruntled lot back to the party fold. For this, their grievances would be addressed. Old workers who have distanced themselves from the party would be reconnected. Past and present functionaries will be brought together.
The other is to gather ground-level feedback for the party on various parameters. This feedback would be gathered on specific issues and be used to formulate a strategy for the forthcoming polls.
WHAT FEEDBACK IS SOUGHT
The feedback to be gathered from the yatras is to be on four specific issues: the government’s functioning, strength of the party organisation and its poll preparedness, public mood and grievances and lastly functioning of the district administration. The entire focus of the feedback is to gather adequate information that would be needed for drafting a poll strategy.
FEEDBACK FROM WHOM
The leaders undertaking yatras have been told to meet members of the RSS, VHP, BMS and ABVP and take their opinion about the government and the party.They would meet present and former district party presidents and seek their opinion also. The feedback includes seeking solutions specific to a particular district. They will interact with the local media and promote development works done by the BJP government. They will also take feedback.
WHO GOES WHERE
Total 35 leaders are scheduled to be on the tour route. The list is decided and tours have begun with general secretary Chandrashekhar reaching Udaipur on Wednesday and party president Ashok Parnami begining his Bikaner tour on Thursday. Others who will undertake the yatras to districts are:
- Avinash Rai Khanna (Jaipur city and rural)
- Chandrashekhar (Udaipur city and rural)
- Avinash Rai Khanna (Jaipur city and rural)
- Ashok Parnami (Bikaner city and rural)
- Gulabchand Kataria (Ajmer city and rural)
- Hariom Singh Rathore (Kota city and rural)
- Omkar Singh Lakhawat (Nagaur city and rural)
- Vasudev Devnani (Jodhpur city and rural)
- Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Chittorgarh)
- Arjun Meghwal (Jaisalmer, Falodi)
- Om Prakash Mathur (Bundi)
- Rao Rajendra Singh (Alwar)
- Arun Chaturvedi (Bharatpur)
- Dushyant Singh (Dholpur)
- Rajendra Rathore (Tonk)
MISSING IN ACTION
Despite elaborate tour plans, large number of ministers have not been scheduled for touring. The list of the omitted ministers is giving rise to political speculations. Ministers who are not on the tour list are:
- Jaswant Yadav
- Kalicharan Saraf
- Shrichand Kriplani
- Gajendra Khimsar
- Rajkumar Rinwa
- Ajay Singh Kilak
- Surendra Goyal
- Nandlal Meena
- Hemsingh Bhadana
- Amraram
- Krishnendra Kaur Deepa
- Surendra Pal TT
- Otaram Devasi
- Dr Ram Pratap
- Dhansingh Ravat
- Banshidhar Bajia
- Sushil Katara
- Kamsa Meghwal
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