Shimla:

Unfazed by a series of resignations in the party following BJP’s debacle in the recent bypolls, BJP Himachal in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna said  the party’s core group that met here today discussed the four years of the BJP rule in the state and decided to prepare a road map  for the coming municipal corporations and the state assembly elections in 2022.

The core group meeting was followed later in  the evening by another extended core group  meeting chaired by the state BJP President Suresh Kashyap in party's bid to thrash out threadbare the "points of  agreements and disagreements among party leaders over the core  issues" to give a united and forceful face among people and its party rivals ahead of polls, the sources said.   

But the party remained ambivalent on the issue of the BJP's face for the 2022 polls. The  insiders revealed the issue would be decided by the BJP parliamentary  board in Delhi after taking the views of the state leaders and party affairs incharge and observers.

But the final call rests with the Prime Minister Narender Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah and national president, the sources said, setting aside all speculations for the time being over the change of guard in the state that had  cropped up due to the BJP's debacle  in the recent bypolls. 

The party spokesperson Randhir Sharma admitted and told reporters that the party lost the bypolls due to (Bhitraghat} internal squabbles and  the price rise issue highlighted by the rivals. 

Earlier the core meeting  was attended by National vice president Saudan Singh,  Avinash Rai Khanna, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, former Chief Minister Prof PK Dhumal and other members chaired by the state president Suresh Kashyap. The details of the extended party meeting was not available, the party insiders however said they wanted to resolve all issues. 

As a matter of fact, BJP lost all the four seats- Mandi Lok Sabha, Jubbal-Kotkhai, Arki (both in Shimla Lok sabha) and Fatehpur in Kangra district to the Congress, giving the party  a much-needed booster dose to fight  the incumbent BJP ahead of the 2022 polls.

BJP’s loss in Mandi was shocking not only for the Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, who hails from Mandi and is the first-ever Chief Minister from the central region, but also for the entire BJP leadership. The party got a big jolt considering that the BJP at the centre has four years to rule and the Mandi seat was won by the BJP by an unpreceded margin of nearly four lakh votes.    

Khanna remained unfazed by the volleys of questions from the media after the meeting. He  ducked the queries on a spate of resignations  including one by vice-president Kripal Parmar and dissolution of the entire BJP unit in Jubbal-Kotkhai due to denial of ticket to Chetan Bragta, who contested as an independent, saying that the result of these by-elections is an eye opener for the party. 
Khanna said the BJP will fight the 2022 elections with its full might  and the party will march ahead by removing and addressing  all the shortcomings and factors behind the defeat. “We will fulfil the expectations of the people and the workers”, he said.
He claimed the BJP is proud and believe that the way,  both the state and central governments have worked in public interest,  is commendable and will go down to  grass root level. “We have not done any such work due to which we have to bow our heads”, he said.

Khanna said the state government has run public welfare schemes like Kisan Samman Nidhi, Ayushman Bharat, Him Care, Ujwala Yojana in public interest and these schemes are benefiting all sections of the society.
He said that BJP will enter the political battle with a renewed vigour and BJP will  romp back to power  in the state in the next elections.
Referring  to the resignations and groupism in the state BJP, Khanna said there is rather a good synergy between the government and the organization, which will give them an advantage against the opposition party.

He said BJP's Panna Pramukh is working at every booth in the entire state. “BJP workers struggle and are cultured and motivated to take on the opposition”.

National President Jagat Parkash Nadda, Union Minister Anurag Singh Thakur and senior BJP Leader and former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar could not make to the meeting, sources said.  

Others  who attended the extended core group meeting included co-in-charge Sanjay Tandon, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, former Chief Minister Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal, State General Secretary Trilok Kapoor, Trilok Jamwal, Rakesh Jamwal, Organization General Secretary Pawan Rana, former State President Rajiv Bindal, Satpal Satti, State Vice President Ram Singh, Kamlesh Kumari, Praveen Sharma, State Chief Spokesperson Randhir Sharma, Media In-charge Rakesh Sharma, Kisan Morcha President Rakesh Sharma Babli, Scheduled Caste Morcha President Niten Kumar, Mahila Morcha President Rashmi Sood, Suresh Bhardwaj, Rajiv Sehjal, Rakesh Pathania , Virendra Kanwar, Govind Thakur, Bikram Thakur, Mahinder  Singh Thakur.

(Kuldeep Chauhan is editor and administrator, HimbuMail)