Eyeing LS poll next year, BJP holds dist meet

Tribune News Service

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, February 6

A meeting of the district working committee of the BJP was held here today, marking the formal mobilisation of the party cadre and planning ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due next year and the impending byelection to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat.

Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal shall be arriving on a 72-hour schedule ahead of the bypoll. Party leaders said Meghwal could arrive anywhere between March end and April; and other union ministers and leaders too would visit the region ahead of the bypoll.

The district meeting comes following the national and state-level working committee meetings of the party. Under state BJP president Ashwani Sharma and other senior leaders, office-bearers, executive members and mandal heads gathered in Jalandhar today. Sharma said the party was carrying out a detailed analysis of the political situation on the ground and was confident of a win in the upcoming LS byelections.

BJP leader Rajesh Bagha said the party had identified 160 Lok Sabha seats for special campaigns to strengthen its prospects, and Jalandhar was an important seat. He said the Lok Sabha seats were monitored by the BJP team in Delhi. For the Jalandhar seat, Meghwal would be coming on a 72-hour visit to Jalandhar, he added. During his visit, he would be participating in various programmes in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency.

From the BJP, the names of the leaders doing rounds as key contenders for the Jalandhar LS seat include National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairman Vijay Sampla; Doaba’s Dalit leader Avinash Chander, two-time MLA and grandson of Dr BR Amebdkar’s aide Seth Kishan Das. Chander is also deemed close to Dera Sachkhand Ballan. Names of Bagha and Rinku Atwal, the son of ex-Deputy Lok Sabha Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, are also doing the rounds.

While the Guru Ravidass Parkash Utsav celebrations in Jalandhar for the past few days witnessed various political parties, including the AAP, BJP and the Congress, reaching out to the members of the Ravidassia community in Jalandhar, the festivities also served as a precursor to the upcoming Lok Sabha bypoll on the Jalandhar LS seat, which is a reserved constituency.

Along with the key leaders of the other parties, BJP leaders also held several visits to Dera Sachkhand Ballan Head Sant Niranjan Das and also during the shobha yatra to mark the occasion of the Parkash Purab.

BJP state zonal incharge Jeevan Gupta, state unit vice-president Rakesh Rathour, secretary Anil Sachar, district president Sushil Sharma, former MLAs Mahendra Bhagat, KD Bhandari, leader Sarabjit Makkar, Vinod Sharma and former district presidents Raman Pabbi and Ramesh Sharma among others were present in the meeting today.