Shah meets union ministers to prepare for Gujarat polls

BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday held a meeting with five union ministers and senior party leaders on preparations for the Gujarat Assembly elections and to chalk out a strategy to win more than 150 seats.

The meeting, held at Shah's residence, was attended among others by union ministers Arun Jaitley, Narendra Singh Tomar, Nirmala Sitharaman, Jitendra Singh and P.P. Chaudhary, besides BJP general secretaries Ram Lal and Bhupendra Yadav and Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghanai.

Jaitley was last week appointed election incharge of Gujarat, while Tomar, Sitharaman and Chaudhary were made co-incharge to assist him.

"Strategy for Gujarat election was discussed in the meeting," Yadav, who is also incharge of party affairs in Gujarat, told reporters.

Vaghani said that preparations for elections were discussed in the meeting and a detailed report on the work of the BJP state government was presented.

"We are going to win over 150 seats," he said.

The Gujarat Assembly ends its tenure in January 2018 and the state is expected to go to polls later this year or early next year.

The assembly polls in Gujarat will be the first elections in the state after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. After Modi resigned as Chief Minister, Anandiben Patel was made his successor.

During Anandiben's regime Gujarat saw the emergence of Hardik Patel who organised massive agitations across the state demanding reservation for the Patidar community.

The BJP decided to change the guard in the state and appointed Vijay Rupani as Chief Minister and Nitin Patel as his Deputy in August last year.

Shah, on many occasions, has clarified that the BJP will fight the next assembly elections in Gujarat under the leadership of Rupani.

--IANS

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