Jaipur:
Work with humility and do not let power change your attitude. Strong, blunt and brusque was the message delivered by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Nabin to senior party leaders who met him at Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s residence for a breakfast meeting in Jaipur at 9.50 am.
In attendance were MLAs, MPs, senior party leaders, election in-charges and the newly inducted prabharis for Rajasthan — Sanjay Bhatia and Kavita Patidar.
“We are in a party that is in power, or in sarkar,” Nitin Nabin is believed to have told party leaders in no uncertain terms. It is important to beware of the trappings of power and meet people with humility, as you did before, he said, warning that the trappings of power can be dangerous.
“When anti-incumbency will set in, those in power won’t realise it,” he cautioned. The arrogance of power “can invite trouble”, he warned. It was a tough message delivered over a breakfast meeting, not open to the press, that featured Rajasthani delicacies such as kachoris and pakodas and the famous Rajasthani breakfast sweet, jalebi.
From 9.50 am to 11.30 am, sources say Nitin Nabin pulled no punches. The urban local body polls had been won, but it was now time to prepare for the panchayat elections.
A key takeaway from the urban local body polls has been that MLAs and local leaders dominated ticket distribution. But Nitin Nabin told senior leaders and public representatives present that they must “own their liabilities as well”.
If a candidate has been given a ticket on the recommendation of a leader and he goes against the party, then the liability rests with the MLA or MP. Spelling it out, Nabin said that leaders who get tickets distributed through sifarish should also be held responsible for their candidates’ actions after the polls, including when it comes to voting to form boards and corporations.
A recent shocker for the BJP was in the Mundwa municipality in Nagaur. The BJP was the largest party, with 10 councillors, and yet the BJP’s official candidate for the chairperson’s seat, Geeta Devi, got zero votes, while the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) managed to form the board. It is believed that the BJP councillors crossed over, and examples like these are not what the BJP wants repeated in the panchayat polls.
Nitin Nabin’s advice to party leaders also emphasised how personal conduct shapes opinions of the party. “Saadgi”, simplicity, no showbaazi and establishing a ground connect was the need of the hour, he stressed.
Nitin Nabin’s one-day visit to Rajasthan, a state that is now headed into the panchayat elections, was designed to build the tempo for the rural test.
Elections to 309 urban local bodies have just been completed, and now the panchayat elections, with 14,403 gram panchayats, are next. They are critical because 72.16 per cent of Rajasthan’s voters will vote in this election.
Of the total 5.17 crore voters in Rajasthan, the urban local bodies have about 1.44 crore voters, which is 27.84 per cent. But the real test for the Bhajan Lal government will be in the villages, where there are 3.73 crore rural voters who will declare their mandate in the panchayat elections.
Balancing caste equations and working on social arithmetic will be the key to the panchayat polls, Nabin is believed to have emphasised, but he also stressed how important the elections in Rajasthan were for building the narrative of the BJP in a key Hindi heartland state.
The urban local body polls and the panchayat elections come right after the Jantar Mantar protests. Insiders at the meeting say Nabin pointed out how the BJP’s performance in the urban areas of Rajasthan and the Delhi University elections had clearly established that there has been no large shift in voter sentiment, especially among young voters, away from the BJP.
The central leadership has closely monitored the elections in Rajasthan, after BL Santosh’s visit earlier this month, and now Nitin Nabin’s clear directions on the panchayat elections have indicated the importance of building the right narrative for the party.
The deployment of central leaders in Rajasthan ahead of these elections has been unusual even by BJP standards.
Marathon meetings were held by BL Santosh ahead of the urban polls. Party president Nitin Nabin followed a similar pattern during his Jaipur visit: a photo op at Albert Hall, a dialogue with Gen Z and a public meeting to enthuse newly elected councillors, followed by the real task at hand – crucial and long deliberations with MPs, MLAs, election in-charges, district presidents and key party workers over the strategy for the panchayat polls.
Asking party leaders not to rest on the laurels of the significantly good performance in the urban local body polls, Nabin is believed to have stressed how important it was for all party leaders to work single-mindedly for the panchayat elections, as this also works towards “strengthening the party organisation”.
