Agartala/UNI: The ruling BJP and its ally IPFT held separate meetings last night with the central leaderships of the respective parties in the wake of recent turmoil in Tripura following passing of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), fast changing political landscape and resentment of people against two years old BJP government here.
The BJP will continue the meeting today in the party headquarters to discuss the election of party's state unit president and the formation of district committees as well as reviewing the organisational activities and political situation of the state.
The last night's meeting was attended by BJP’s northeast organisational head Ajay Jamwal, state president Biplab Kumar Deb and other senior leaders of the party, including ministers and MLAs.
Reportedly, the meeting stressed on extensive organisational work at grass root level to strengthen the party base.
BJP came to power last year in the assembly elections with the backing of negligible organisational base riding on huge anti-incumbency against the left front government.
In the last two years, BJP did not undertake any exercise to strengthen its organisational base which weakened its reach and gave rise to mistrust against the government.
In the absence of organisational discipline, even the meetings of the ministers with the party leaders and MLAs, usually held daily or once in a week, was not held, which eroded BJP's influence at the grassroot level, said a senior party functionary here, adding that the Chief Minister's meetings with his cabinet colleagues is occasional and most formal and it is rare with the MLAs.
“Lack of understanding and integration among the party leaderships, ministers and MLAs developed several differences within the party. It came in the open and the opposition got a boost," he said.
"Some wrong steps of the government, development of vested interest groups in the administration and bureaucratic functioning made an adverse effect on government's image,” he stated.
In the last two years BJP has suffered loss of support base owing to non-fulfillment of the poll promises and over dependency on the left front’s administrative mechanism.
Due to poor organisation and dissidence in the party, BJP could not even reach out to the people with the good initiatives of the Central and the state government and couldn’t counter the anti-BJP campaign.
“The leaders were talking among themselves about the deteriorating condition of BJP in the state and poor leadership but no one uttered a single word on the issue in the meeting with Jamwal, rather everybody was found appreciating the current functioning of the government which shows the inefficiency of the leaders,” he mentioned.
BJP national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav chaired the session to finalise the contestants for next Pradesh president, and held detailed discussion on the issue. The president election was supposed to be completed by Dec 15 but it has been deferred for two weeks.
It has also been decided to hold mass awareness campaign on CAA and it will be organised with Mandal-level leaders to make them understand the provisions of the Act, who will in turn carry forward it to the public.
On the other hand, the meeting of IPFT central leadership, including party president and Revenue minister N C Debbarma and Tribal Welfare minister and general secretary Mevar Kr Jamatia discussed about their plan of action on CAA and upcoming ADC elections.
According to reports, IPFT has decided to contest ADC polls alone, protesting against CAA and its demand for separate Tipraland and NRC.
“Despite being alliance partners, BJP’s stand on CAA and non-response to our long pending demand for Tipraland has forced us to fight the ADC polls alone. We feel BJP has not realized the sentiments of the indigenous people of the state,” a senior IPFT leader said.
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