By IANS,
Raipur: Chhattisgarh’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held a crucial core group meeting here Thursday in which key leaders devised strategy to retain power in the state, which goes to the polls later this year, sources said.
The core group meeting was attended by Chief Minister Raman Singh, BJP national general secretary and Chhattisgarh in-charge J.P. Nadda, BJP national general secretary (organisation) Saudan Singh, BJP state chief Ram Sewak Paikra, and former member of parliament and senior BJP leader Karuna Shukla, among others.
The party leaders said at the meeting that the BJP, which is ruling the state since Dec 2003, needs to keep its strategy perfect to score a hat-trick in the 90-member assembly polls to be held by November.
According to party sources, along with sops for the public ahead of the polls, the issue of party workers’ disenchantment with government functioning was also raised in the meeting by Saudan Singh and Nadda.
Both these leaders received only a lukewarm response from party workers during their recent visit to various parts of the state, especially the predominantly tribal Bastar.
The core group also discussed the performance of members of the Raman Singh cabinet and reportedly asked half a dozen ministers to improve their record, as after the assembly budget session, which begins Feb 18, the party would go into poll mode.
Tickets of party leaders, especially ministers, would be decided on the basis of their performance, the core group reportedly said.