The state BJP held a Lok Sabha election strategy meeting in which the party decided to focus on booths where it was defeated in November assembly elections.

Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan attended the high-level meeting at the BJP HQ chaired by national organisational general secretary Shivprakash.

In a major restructuring, the party shuffled the leaders who were appointed as electoral cluster in-charges last month. Each cluster has an average of four Lok Sabha seats.

Now, minister for urban administration Kailash Vijayvargiya will be in charge of the Jabalpur cluster, which includes the vital Chhindwara constituency – the lone Congress victory in 2019 LS polls. Earlier, Vijayvargiya was in charge of Indore cluster, which will now be under deputy CM Jagdish Devda.

Former home minister Narottam Mishra has been shifted from Gwalior Chambal to Sagar cluster. Former minister Bhupendra Singh, who was earlier in charge of Sagar, will now be responsible for the party’s performance in the Gwalior-Chambal cluster. Deputy CM Rajendra Shukla has been moved from Rewa cluster to Bhopal, while minister for youth affairs Vishwas Sarang has been shifted from Bhopal to Ujjain. Senior cabinet minister Prahlad Patel, who was previously in charge of Jabalpur will now head the Rewa cluster.

Buoyed by the overwhelming success of the assembly election, BJP again plans to fight the LS polls at each of the 65,000 booths in the state.

BJP national president JP Nadda recently appointed Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Mahendra Singh as Lok Sabha election in charge for Madhya Pradesh and former Delhi BJP President Satish Upadhayay as co-in charge. Both these leaders took charge of their responsibilities on Saturday.

Briefing the media state BJP chief VD Sharma said, “Today a series of meetings were held with the conveners and in-charges of our seven electoral clusters, conveners and in-charge of all Lok Sabha constituencies. Just like we fought the assembly elections at each booth, similarly we will fight the Lok Sabha elections with a resolve to increase vote share by 10% in every booth. This was discussed in today’s meetings and guidance was received from senior leaders.”

As for Congress is concerned ,it has decided to field senior leaders in 50% of constituencies in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, and youth leaders in the rest.

The decision was taken after a meeting with Congress screening committee chairperson Rajni Patil. Also, the party made it clear that if AICC decides to field senior leaders, they will have to contest even if some of them may have said they don’t want to.

Party sources said that even if senior leaders have said they don’t want to contest the Parliamentary elections, the party’s decision would be final.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting former minister Sajjan Singh Verma said, “Discussions have been held and it has been suggested that 14 to 15 senior leaders will be fielded in the Lok Sabha elections, and in the remaining 14 to 15 constituencies young leaders should be given the opportunity” MP has 29 Lok Sabha seats.

Less than a week ago, Congress stalwart Digvijaya Singh had said that he will not contest the LS polls as he has two years of his Rajya Sabha tenure left.

Some other senior leaders have informed the organisation that they do not want to contest the Lok Sabha elections. However, the party has a different view. Sources said that AICC wants the senior leaders to contest since they have their influence over major parts of the state. Plus, they also have their own supporters and loyal vote-bank.

Meanwhile the MP BJP has launched an unique experiment. Through this experiment the party is providing training to all its ministers. The party has mobilized its senior leaders to act as teachers for the training programme. The party hopes that the training will increase the efficiency and skills of the ministers. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said that it is an orientation programme to develop the leadership capacity of the cabinet ministers.

Chief Minister said that the entire people of the state are affected by the decisions of the state cabinet. Therefore training of the members of the cabinet is necessary. Training will provide an opportunity to learn the nuances of governance, which will strengthen administration and its direct benefits will be available to the people of the state through the decisions of the cabinet, he said. Chief Minister said that training will provide an opportunity to the member of the state cabinet to learn harmony and co-ordination with the ministries of the government of India and departments of the state government.

Speeches of senior public representative and experts of NITI Aayog will boost their confidence. It will help them take decision on governance but also make their personal life disciplined and successful.

On the day one of the summit, sessions of speeches by the CM, senior public representative and experts from NITI Aayog were organised for the orientation of the public representatives. (IPA Service)