Jaipur, Jan 16 (IANS): In view of the upcoming parliamentary elections, the BJP has divided the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan into 8 clusters and appointed the cluster in-charges.
A meeting of these cluster in-charges was held in Delhi on Tuesday at the national headquarters of the BJP from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., in which the cluster in-charges from all over the country participated. When Rajasthan's number came, 8 cluster in-charges of the state were given information about their clusters. The responsibility for 2 out of 8 clusters has been given to senior BJP leaders including Rajendra Rathore and Satish Poonia.
Party sources said the “BJP has started preparations for the Lok Sabha elections. Its target is to win 25 out of the 25 seats in the state this time too, but if we look at the voting trend in the assembly elections, there are about 10-12 Lok Sabha seats where the BJP got less votes than the Congress. In such a situation, this time the party will work on dividing the Lok Sabha seats into clusters, so that the party can be strengthened in the assembly seats where it is weak.”
The cluster in-charges include former Leader of the Opposition in the state Rajendra Rathore, former Deputy Leader of the Opposition Satish Poonia, former state party president Arun Chaturvedi, former cabinet minister and party vice president Prabhulal Saini, government chief whip Jogeshwar Garg, Rajya Sabha MP Rajendra Gehlot, former Rajya Sabha MP Narayan Panchariya and former state officials. The RSS' Prasanna Chand Mehta has been made the clusters in-charge.
At today's meeting in Delhi, all of them were given information about their cluster, and now their work will start. They will report directly to BJP national president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
Meanwhile, Rathod-Poonia's chances of contesting the elections have come down. After losing the assembly elections, there was constant discussion that the party could make Rajendra Rathore and Satish Poonia contest the Lok Sabha elections, but now the chances seem less because the 8 leaders have been made cluster in-charges. He will be responsible for at least 3 Lok Sabha seats. In such a situation, if he is made to contest elections, he will not be able to concentrate on his seat. Apart from this, it does not seem possible to change the cluster in-charge midway. This can also be understood in the way that the party has not made any Union Minister or sitting MP a cluster in-charge, even though they have more experience in Lok Sabha elections. The party has given these jobs only to those leaders who do not have any big responsibility right now.
Party sources said that issues related to rallies, plans to reach the grassroot level to check if there is any anti-incumbency, if fresh candidates need to be fielded, government schemes feedback and how to implement schemes were also discussed at the Delhi meeting.