BJP to organise four yatras in poll-bound Rajasthan starting September

With an intent to present an united leadership and not highlight a single face in the upcoming polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party is carrying out four yatras in poll-bound Rajasthan starting next month, which will culminate with a rally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party is deploying senior leaders, including party president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, to flag off these yatras. State leaders Vasundhara Raje, Satish Poonia and C P Joshi will be part of the rallies.

The rallies, which will be called Parivartan Yatra, will start on September 2 from Sawai Madhopur with Shah flagging it off. The rally will begin from the Trinetra Ganesh Temple, and former CM Raje will lead it.

Trying to strike a balance between its warring factions, the party will have state unit president CP Joshi leading the second rally from Beneshwar Dham in Dungarpur on September 3. Party president JP Nadda will flag off this rally.

The third rally will be from Ramdevra in Jaisalmer on September 4, and union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will lead it while union minister Rajnath Singh will flag it off. The last rally, which will start from Gogamedi in Hanumangarh on September 5, will be led by former state president Satish Poonia, with union minister Nitin Gadkari flagging it off.

These rallies, which are designed to criss-cross through 2-3 assembly constituencies every day, aiming to touch all of the state’s 200 constituencies, will culminate on September 25 with a rally by Modi in Jaipur. Local sabhas and meetings with focussed groups are planned along the way, said party source. The plan for the rally was decided upon during the core committee meeting.

The development comes barely a week after the party announced last Thursday a 21-member election management committee and another 25-member manifesto panel, which was conspicuous due to the absence of Raje from any of them. Joshi and Shekhawat, too, did not find their names in either panel, as well as Lok Sabha MP Rajendra Rathore, who is the current leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.