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Shwait Malik takes charge as new Punjab BJP chief, ex-presidents want state party unit to find its feet
CM Amarinder should perform or quit as his govt failed to honour poll promises, says new incumbent
Expressing concern over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s unremarkable performance in one after other assembly election, former state party presidents on Sunday stressed that the party must expand base in Punjab like it was doing in other states.
As new Punjab BJP president Shwait Malik took charge at the party’s state headquarters in Chandigarh, it was former chief Prof Rajinder Bhandari who set the tone, claiming that their weak position in Punjab was a matter of concern.
The party contests the Punjab assembly polls in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
“It was the dream of every BJP worker in Punjab to see the party where it is today at the national level. But that dream is incomplete for us in Punjab. We also want to see the BJP making inroads here the way the party did in states where our role was very limited,” said Bhandari.
The party leader from Ludhiana said the issue needed a serious rethinking. “We need to decide if we have to confine ourselves to contesting from a mere 23 assembly seats of a total of 117 segments,” he said.
Former Pathankot MLA and ex-state BJP chief Ashwani Sharma said the BJP formed government in a state like Tripura where it used to secure less than two per cent of vote share earlier.
“Don’t we have spirit to help the party establish itself the way it did in other states by forming the governments? Let us all get together under the leadership of the new president to start making efforts to fulfil this dream,” said Sharma.
Former Rajya Sabha member and party in-charge for Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Goa Avinash Rai Khanna said the party should strengthen itself in such a way that it wins from all the seats it contests in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls in 2019 and 2022.
However, other former state party presidents, including Vijay Sampla, Madan Mohan Mittal, Kamal Sharma and Manoranjan Kalia, refrained making any comments on the SAD-BJP ties.
New chief lashes out at Cong govt
Shwait Malik lashed out at the Congress government in the state and accused it of failing to keep its poll promises despite being in power for over a year now.
Daring chief minister Amarinder Singh to either perform or quit, Malik accused the government of betraying farmers by promising to waive all their debt which was pegged at Rs 90,000 crore. “Electricity rates have doubled in the state since,” he claimed.
Malik said the party had given one-year to the Amarinder government to honour its promises. “But now we will not sit silently. I on behalf of the BJP challenge the state government to either perform or quit. Now our campaign will be ‘Congress quit Punjab’ and we will hit the streets for the cause of people to wake this government from deep slumber,” he said.
Punjab BJP in-charge Prabhat Jha and party’s national secretary Tarun Chugh also spoke on the occasion.
Sampla exhorted the party workers to be aware of the “false propaganda” launched by the opposition parties on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
“We should not be misled by the false and fake propaganda launched by the opposition parties on the issue of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” said Sampla, a Dalit.
