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BJP’s heavyweights camp in HP to bolster party’s poll prospects
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and party’s national chief Jagat Prakash Nadda will be addressing a series of rallies in the state
With assembly elections around the corner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pitched its bigwigs to bolster the party’s prospects in Himachal Pradesh as its chief minister Jai Ram Thakur strives hard to achieve ‘Mission Repeat’ in the hill state, where power has alternated between the Congress and the BJP over the last three decades.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and party’s national chief Jagat Prakash Nadda will be addressing a series of rallies in the state. Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, textiles minister Smriti Irani, and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath will also tour Himachal Pradesh.
These elections hold a lot at stake for JP Nadda since Himachal is his home state and he had been helping Jai Ram to tighten his grip over the government as well as the party.
Nadda is the first leader from the state to become the national president of the BJP. He took over the baton from Union home minister Amit Shah. He was first elected to Vidhan Sabha in 1993 and served as the leader of Opposition from 1994 to 1998.
He remained health and family affairs minister during his second term from 1998 to 2004. He was elected to another term in 2007. He was appointed forest, environment, science and technology minister, but gave up his cabinet berth in 2010 and was appointed as the national general secretary of the party. Nadda has been repeatedly touring the state to firm up strategy for the elections. He has already attended two sammelans in Hamirpur and Shimla parliamentary constituencies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also on October 5 addressed a rally in Bilaspur, the home turf of Nadda, where he inaugurated AIIMS and a hydro engineering college besides laying the foundation stones of Nalagarh medical device park and four-laning project of Pinjore-Nalagarh highway (NH-105).
PM Modi, who describes Himachal as his second home, will address another rally, this time in Chamba on October 13. On September 23, he had virtually addressed the ‘Yuva Sankalp’ rally in Mandi where he could not reach due to inclement weather conditions.
Union home minister Shah is set to address an event at Sataun in Shillai assembly segment on October 15 as well.
The saffron party is running a statewide campaign, ‘Rivaz Badlo’ (change the custom of alternating government after every five years). To consolidate its position in Sirmaur, the party has also worked to grant tribal status to the Hatti community, which is spread over four of five assembly segments in the district.
Of the total seats, the BJP has three legislators in Pacchad, Nahan and Paonta Sahib, while the Congress represents two assembly segments -- Shillai and Renuka. Nearly 50% of the population in the Sirmaur district comprises ‘Hatti’ community members.
The Union cabinet recently approved the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill 2022 in the Parliament.
After the Bill becomes an Act, members of the communities newly listed on the revised list of STs in Himachal Pradesh will also be able to derive benefits meant for STs under the existing schemes of the government. Some of the major schemes of this kind include post-matric scholarship, national overseas scholarship, national fellowship, top-class education, and concessional loans from National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation.
Meanwhile, BJP national chief JP Nadda on Monday gave tips to the panchayati raj members and discussed their roles in the upcoming elections.
He attended a ‘Panch Parmeshwar Sammelan in Solan, where he said that panchayati raj was the base of the three-tier system in India and plays a vital role in the development of the country.
“The BJP has always focused on the development of rural areas across the country,” he added.
