File Photo: BJP Party President Amit Shah
Ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, BJP chief Amit Shah on Wednesday held meetings with leaders of these states and asked the partymen to gear up to ensure the party's victory at the hustings.
Mr Shah told the senior leaders of both the state units to start work immediately even though assembly polls were a few months away.
He also heard the views of various party leaders from Haryana on continuation of the party's alliance with Haryana Janhit Congress led by Kuldeep Bishnoi, which is under strain after the latter announced a number of its candidates and staked his claim for the chief minister's post.
Mr Shah had held similar meetings on Tuesday with the state units of Jharkhand and Maharashtra.
These were Mr Shah's first important meetings after taking over as party president last week.
He told the partymen to prepare themselves and reach out to the grass-roots level to take the policies of the Narendra Modi government to the common man.
Haryana Assembly elections are due later this year along with Maharashtra, while that of Jammu and Kashmir are due early next year. Jharkhand is also slated for assembly polls early next year.
The BJP is seeking to wrest power from the Congress in Haryana and the Congress-National Conference alliance in J&K.
Among others who attended the meetings were party general secretary (Organisation) Ramlal, party general secretary JP Nadda, joint secretary (organisation) Saudan Singh and Ram Madhav, a former RSS leader who has been asked by the Sangh to join the BJP.
The meeting on Jammu and Kashmir was also attended by Union Minister Jitendra Singh, state party unit chief Jugal Kishore Sharma and in-charge of the state party unit Avinash Rai Khanna and joint in-charge RP Singh, besides others.
The meeting related to Haryana was was also attended by the party's in-charge of state affairs Jagdish Mukhi and joint in-charge Anil Jain, besides party's state president Ram Bilas Sharma and Union Minister Krishanpal Gujjar and OP Dhankar.