Giving an indication that many sitting legislators, including ministers, could be denied ticket in the coming assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party's national president Jagat Prakash Nadda said that performance would be the criterion for ticket distribution.
“Non-performing ministers and MLAs will not get tickets this time,” Nadda said during the organisational meeting of Braj region held in Agra on Sunday.
In the meeting, which was attended by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP state leaders and ministers, Nadda said that performance would be the only yardstick to decide tickets and people (legislators and ministers) still had time to pull up their socks. He added that the road to forming a government in UP in 2022 passed through the Braj region.
The BJP national president instructed all the MLAs and party’s state office-bearers to improve coordination between the organisation and the government. Along with this, he directed senior party leaders to spend the night at a booth.
"Now the workers should start strengthening the party at the booth level. Educate people about the schemes of the state and Central governments. Strengthen the booth and increase the number of workers. The programmes of the organisation have to be implemented cent per cent at the ground," he said and asked leaders to think how to make the organisation strong.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in his speech, elaborated on the development works being done in the Braj region. He said SN Medical College would have a super specialty hospital and proposed the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj museum along with medical colleges in Firozabad and Etah.
The chief minister said that during the COVID-19 pandemic when the opposition was sleeping the government was working to extend help to the people. He asked party workers to take the achievements of the government to the people.
“The opposition will try to defame us. Defeat their nefarious designs,” he said.
BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh instructed the leaders to strengthen the party at booth level and carry out the proposed programmes of the organisation with enthusiasm.
“The party’s identity is from the organisation itself. Organisation should be everything for you,” he added.
Party’s national general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh, state in-charge Radha Mohan Singh, state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal and Deputy Chief Ministers Dr Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya also attended the meeting.
Over 50 MLAs, seven ministers and five MLCs from the Braj region attended the meeting. Among the state ministers, Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan, Shrikant Sharma, Ramnaresh Agnihotri, Sandeep Singh, Mahesh Gupta, Chaudhary Udaybhan Singh and Dr GS Dharmesh attended the meeting.
The Braj region has been very important for the BJP. It has 65 assembly constituencies spread over 12 districts. In the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP won 57 of the 65 seats in the Braj region.
