Shah to meet top leaders from state on June 22

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 19

With parliamentary elections less than a year away and the BJP already on the job for its “Mission-2019” with a target to win 300 seats, party president Amit Shah will meet top leaders from the state on June 22 at Haryana Bhawan in Delhi.

The Tribune has learnt that during the meeting, Shah will not only discuss the party’s plans for the seats that the BJP lost in 2014, but will also review the performance of the sitting MPs.

Sources said besides Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, national organising secretary of the party Ram Lal, Haryana affairs incharge Anil Jain, state BJP president Subhash Barala, state organising secretary Suresh Bhatt, three Central ministers from the state Birender Singh, Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar, state Cabinet ministers Ram Bilas Sharma, Capt Abhimanyu, OP Dhankar and Anil Vij and national secretary of the party Sudha Yadav would attend the meeting.

Earlier, Shah had taken feedback from BJP organisation leaders during a two-day meeting held at Surajkund in Faridabad on June 15 and 16. Sources said the feedback Shah got about some of the sitting MPs was no encouraging. The party leaders are likely to discuss various options available to them on these seats during the June 22 meeting.

BJP sources said fielding new faces on at least half of the Lok Sabha seats was not ruled out.

In 2014, the BJP had contested eight seats and left Hisar and Sirsa to its alliance partner at that time Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) of Kuldeep Bishnoi.

While the HJC lost both seats to the INLD, the BJP won seven seats, losing the Rohtak seat to Deepender Hooda of the Congress.

The BJP MP from Kurukshetra, Raj Kumar Saini, has already stated several times that he would float his own political outfit and contest the next elections on its ticket. Bhiwani MP Dharamvir Singh has expressed his unwillingness to contest the parliamentary poll while Karnal MP Ashwani Chopra has also been showing signs of dissent.

Since Dhankar was the BJP’s candidate from Rohtak in the last parliamentary elections, the party sources said it was unlikely that he would be asked to contest the seat this time, as he is a senior minister in the state Cabinet.

Sources said while the party leaders would mull options for Hisar, Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Bhiwani, Karnal and Rohtak seats, change of candidates on one or two more seats could not be ruled out.

State BJP chief Subhash Barala said the meeting was aimed at holding discussions on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “Our party’s president will discuss the strategy as well as the performance of MPs on the 10 Lok Sabha seats from the state in detail. However, it is too early to say whether new faces could be fielded on some seats as decisions on tickets are taken only at the time of elections,” Barala said.