BJP yet to review poll debacle,state executive committee meeting to be held later

results.

The resignation of the party’s national General Secretary Arun Jaitley has further exposed chinks in its armour. Gujarat BJP president Parshottam Rupala,however,said the state BJP executive committee would be convened after the national executive committee meeting. “But we will not discuss either the post-poll situation or the organisational restructuring,” he said.

Rupala said a couple of routine meetings have already been held,which were “quite interesting,but their details cannot be given to the media”.

Rupala remained non-committal on the party’s failure to review 2009 LS poll performance or when it will be

taken up.

Kaushik Patel who was in-charge of the election campaign said he had no idea about the poll review exercise and it was up to the party president and general secretary to decide about it.

Gujarat BJP managed to get only one seat more than what it had won in the 2004 LS polls. It was Chief Minister Narendra Modi who had handpicked most of the candidates and had opted for new faces. For the second consecutive time,Gujarat BJP had failed to add substantially to the party’s national tally. In 1999,BJP had won 20 seats in the LS polls,which reduced to 14 in 2004.

Modi has also remained silent on the poll outcome. He was also in-charge of Maharashtra and Goa,where too BJP lost seats in comparison to its performance in the last poll. He did comment about the high expectations of him likening himself to Sachin Tendulkar.

Meanwhile,Gujarat BJP preferred to keep quiet on the issue of Jaitley’s resignation.

Jaitely is Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat. Rupala said he did not see any impact of Jaitley’s resignation in state BJP. Rupala also ruled out any changes in the party setup in the immediate future.

Vijay Rupani,state BJP General Secretary,said Jaitley had quit his party post,as he is the leader in the House and therefore cannot hold a post in the party.

Former AUDA chairman and Rajya Sabha member Surendra Patel,who is believed to be close to Jaitley,said he did “not know about any such development”.

He also refused to comment on the repercussions of the development in Gujarat BJP.