Kota: BJP national president JP Nadda will hold meetings with the party's office bearers from Kota division on Wednesday days after Congress began a public awareness campaign on Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project from Baran. Nadda will reach Kota airport at 11 am on Wednesday and will head to a hotel on DCM road where he will hold meetings with the party's key office bearers and leaders of Kota division in two slots, BJP's Kota district president Krishan Kumar Soni said.
In the first slot from 11 am to 1 pm, Nadda will hold meetings with party office bearers and leaders of Kota -Bundi Lok Sabha constituency, followed by meetings with office bearers of Jhalawar-Baran Lok Sabha constituency, he said. All four districts in the Kota division, namely Kota, Bundi, Baran and Jhalawar, are among 13 districts covered under the ERCP for which the Congress party has been demanding national project status.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge launched the awareness campaign at a public rally in Baran district on Monday. ERCP is an ambitious project which will help augment irrigation facilities in an area of around 2 lakh hectares and will address drinking water problems in 13 districts of eastern Rajasthan.
Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje's assembly constituency, Jhalrapatan (Jhalawar), is also in Kota division. The BJP has so far not given any clarity about the role of Raje, who is seen as among the frontrunners for the party's CM post. However, the party has made it clear that the election will be contested on the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and on the party symbol 'Lotus'.
Also, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla is also from Kota and represents Kota-Bundi Lok Sabha constituency, while Raje's son Dushyant Singh is the Lok Sabha MP from Jhalawar-Baran. Nadda's visit to Kota is also considered significant given that three ministers in the Ashok Gehlot government -- Shanti Dhariwal (Kota), Pramod Jain Bhaya (Baran) and Ashok Chandna (Bundi) -- are also from this division.
Polling in all 200 assembly constituencies will be held on November 25, and counting of votes will take place on December 3. The BJP has announced candidates for 41 seats. However, no candidate for the Kota division has been announced so far. Kota division is considered a saffron bastion with 10 of 17 sitting MLAs and both MPs belonging to the BJP.
