JAIPUR: Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda held night-long discussions with the party's Rajasthan leadership here on a range of issues about the upcoming assembly elections.
The meeting began at a hotel late on Wednesday evening and continued till 2 am, party sources said on Thursday. The discussions were held amid a buzz that two central ministers might be asked to contest the upcoming polls. The speculation follows the BJP's decision to name three Union ministers and four MPs in its second list of candidates for poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
Following the meeting, both Shah and Nadda left for Delhi on Thursday. A meeting with local RSS leaders was not held, party sources said.
"Discussions on election strategy were held in the meeting last night," Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told reporters at the hotel on Thursday.
Shah and Nadda arrived in Jaipur on a special plane on Wednesday evening and headed to the hotel near the airport for the core committee meeting.
Party sources said that Shah and Nadda first held a meeting with former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje for around 15 minutes. It was followed by a meeting with senior leaders in which the party's election strategy was discussed. Feedback on the four 'Parivartan Yatras' that the BJP held recently was also discussed.
Union minister and the party's election in-charge for Rajasthan Pralhad Joshi, co-in-charge Nitin Patel, BJP's in-charge for Rajasthan Arun Singh, state unit president C P Joshi, Union Ministers Gajendra Singh, Arjun Meghwal, Kailash Chaudhary, leader of opposition in Assembly Rajendra Rathore, deputy leader of opposition Satish Poonia and other leaders were present at the meeting, the sources said.
The meeting continued for around three hours.
Poonia and MP Rajyavardhan Rathore were the first to leave the venue after the first round.
Nadda and Shah held the next round of meetings with the BJP's national general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh, Union minister Pralhad Joshi, Nitin Patel, Arun Singh, Kuldeep Vishnoi and Vijaya Rahatkar, among others, the party sources said.
"The leaders held discussions on the assembly constituencies and brainstormed on ways to win the maximum number of seats in Mewar, Vagad, Shekhawati, Hadauti and Marwar regions and in eastern Rajasthan in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections," a source said.
During the meeting, a clear message was sent out that the "party organisation is supreme and all have to work together to ensure the victory of the party" in the elections.
Some leaders said that ticket distribution and other poll-related issues were discussed in the meeting.
Sources in the BJP's Rajasthan unit said Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal may be fielded in the assembly polls, along with some other MPs.
However, the party leaders who came out of the hotel refrained from sharing details of the meeting with the media.
Convener of the election management committee Narayan Panchariya said the party's authorised person will share details of the meeting with the media.
There is speculation that senior RSS pracharak Prakash Chand may be given certain responsibilities in the upcoming Assembly election.