As poll clock ticks, Shah ticks off 'lax' state BJP leaders

BJP president upset over delay in implementing 1+1 strategy

BJP national president Amit Shah on Sunday is learnt to have taken party state legislators and MPs to task for not following his "one-plus-one strategy," wherein each elected representative not only looks after his or her constituency, but one more allotted by the party.

"It is a simple task and yet you have not been able to implement it. This is unacceptable," he is said to have told the elected representatives at the meeting to review the election preparedness of the party.

Under the initiative, elected representatives have to visit and spend time in constituencies other than their own, interact with local leaders, workers there and hold meetings on a regular basis. He is said to have told the elected representatives that he will visit Bengaluru again on January 9, by which time they will have to visit the constituencies allotted to them.

Expects more

Later, at the core-committee meeting attended by top state leaders including B S Yeddyurappa, Ananth Kumar, D V Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar and K S Eshwarappa, Shah is learnt to have said that he expected more from them if the party had to win the Assembly polls.

Mahadayi row

He is said to have expressed unhappiness that several tasks set by him during his last visit in August had not been implemented. The backlash by farmers on the Mahadayi water dispute could have been handled better, Shah reportedly said.

Lauds yatra

According to sources, Shah had a word of appreciation for Nava Karnataka Nirmana Parivarthana Yatra led by Yeddyurappa. However, other leaders should participate in the Yatra actively, he told the meeting.

He said there should be no announcement of candidates for the elections during the yatra. "Tickets will be decided by us (central leadership)," he is said to have told the meeting.