BATHINDA: Facing a stiff protest from farmers over farm laws, the BJP has appointed Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as Punjab BJP in-charge and Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Meenakshi Lekhi and MP Vinod Chavda as co-in-charges of the party in Punjab, which is expected to go to polls in early February along with Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The move is being seen as an effort to make BJP come out of the woods in Punjab and instil confidence in state leaders to go out for electioneering, said a party leader, who did not wish to be named.
Amid the ongoing struggle against farm laws, the BJP leaders had been finding it very hard to come out and mingle among people for electoral reasons. After the farm organisations had given a call to hold protests against them, Punjab-based BJP leaders had been facing tough time for close to a year now.
Under such circumstances, appointing three ministers is aimed at the confidence building measure and also to make it alive politically and stay in the reckoning, said the party leader, not wanting to be named. BJP is learnt to have chalked out a plan to start electioneering and reach out to people.
Initially, BJP leaders from Punjab Surjit Kumar Jyani and Harjit Singh Grewal had been working as a bridge between the central government and farm organisations when the farmers had started opposing the three contentious laws and had ensured start of meetings which went on till 11 rounds, even though no solution was found.
The situation against BJP had reached such a stage after farmers had publicly stripped party MLA Arun Narang at Malout a few months ago. The party now wants to make rapport with electorates belonging to various sections of society, the leaders said.
Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma said, “Earlier, BJP used to contest only 23 seats and this time, the party is contesting all the 117 seats. So bigger central representation was needed to guide the party unit and it (appointing 3 ministers) should not be seen as unusual. All the leaders are experienced and well versed with Punjabi traditions, their experience will take Punjab BJP further. The party is working on the ground at smaller level and when the time comes, the bigger rallies will be organised too.”
