Low turnout at key meet of party ground workers

New Delhi: Delhi BJP’s preparation for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls faced a severe setback early this week when the party witnessed very low turnout of ground workers in an important meeting called by state general secretary Kuljeet Chahal.

According to sources, Mr Chahal, suspended twice from BJP for anti-party activities, was appointed the in-charge of gath (group) management of households.

As per party decision or poll strategy, one worker will be appointed gath convenor for every 10 houses and s/he will be responsible for reaching out to the families in these houses regularly till the elections.

A party insider told this newspaper that on Monday, Mr Chahal called a meeting of nearly 500 ground workers. But only a handful attended the meeting.

“An elaborate arrangement was made for the first meeting called by Mr Chahal, the newly appointed in-charge of gath management. To start work, Mr Chahal called upon key workers of the party’s booth management department, district presidents, and general secretaries. But most of them did not turn up for the meeting,” said a party insider aware of the development.

It is learnt that Mr Chahal called a meeting of 280 mandal and 70 Assembly convenors of booth management department.

He also called vistaraks of 70 Assembly and seven Lok Sabha constituency and 42 senior office bearers at district level, which include 14 district presidents and 28 general secretaries.

“Of almost 470 key ground workers called for the meeting, just 50 attended the meeting,” said senior party.

Another senior Delhi BJP leader blamed the lack of planning and coordination on Mr Chahal’s part for the failure of the meeting.