Team Herald
PANJIM: With the BJP looking to strengthen its connect with the people, the party in Goa has asked its ministers to make themselves available to party workers and listen to their grievances at the BJP headquarters in Panjim. The instructions essentially replicate the practice followed by Union ministers in the national capital.
“This system is followed in Delhi. Many workers cannot visit the Secretariat to meet the ministers on a regular basis, which is why it has been decided that all BJP ministers will make themselves available in the party head office, twice a month. This will facilitate workers to express their grievance to the respective ministers without hassles,” party general secretary Sadanand Shet Tanawde told Herald.
While Health Minister Vishwajit Rane spent Saturday with the workers, Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar and North MP Shripad Naik will meet the karyakartas on November 30 and December 1, respectively.
The BJP MLAs have been asked to remain present at their respective district offices every 15 days.
The move also comes ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls even as Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, after the fractured mandate in the February 2017 Assembly elections, had asked the party leaders to introspect on BJP’s poor performance and advised them to connect with the people.
Internal scrutiny after the election results had revealed that several of the former ministers and MLAs had failed to maintain a healthy rapport with the workers and the people at large resulting in the decrease in seats from 21 in 2012 to 13 in 2017.
“We met our karyakartas and most of them told us that they were upset with the attitude of their candidates. As such, they did not whole heartedly campaign for them. A large number of voters in some constituencies shared the same views,” a senior party official had told Herald.
Since then the party has been on a trouble shooting mission wherein current MLAs, besides former MLAs, were asked to respect and develop a strong bond with party workers and the people.
