BENGALURU: With the Covid-19 situation easing up, the ruling BJP is starting preparations for the upcoming Zilla Panchayat (ZP) and Taluk Panchayat (TP) elections. The elections to these urban local bodies are likely to be held early next year, only after the Covid situation is fully under control.
The BJP state executive committee meeting on Saturday discussed measures to strengthen the organisation at the grassroot level ahead of the elections and steps to be taken to help people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. At the inaugural session of the committee meeting, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa called on the party leaders to be prepared to face bypolls to two assembly segments as well as the ZP and TP elections.
Ensuring good performance in local body elections will help the party to do well in the Assembly elections in 2023, he stressed. After the meeting, BJP State General Secretary N Ravi Kumar said they have decided to hold district executive committee meetings between July 1 to 15 and meetings will be held at all mandals from July 16 to 30.
Given the Covid situation, all these meetings will be held in hybrid mode, both physical and virtual, following all protocols. Booth presidents will be given nameplates by the party and a convention of Gram Panchayat members will be held in August, while the party has also planned to hold a state-level convention of GP presidents and vice-presidents in Bengaluru in October.
Party national general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Arun Singh, who participated in the meeting from New Delhi, asked the BJP leaders and workers to focus on strengthening the organisation and also to create awareness about the several initiatives taken by the state and central governments. Resolutions were adopted appreciating the measures by the central government to fight the pandemic and condemning post-poll violence in Bengal.
Covid efforts
State president Nalin Kumar Kateel said the party will felicitate workers who conducted the last rites of 4,531 people who died of Covid. He appreciated the State Government’s initiative to provide Rs 1 lakh compensation to BPL families which lost a family member to Covid-19 and financial assistance to children who lost their parents. He slammed the Congress party leaders for only criticising the government and not providing any help to people affected by the pandemic. The BJP leaders and workers were also asked to actively involve themselves in the Covid vaccination drive.