New Delhi, June 13: BJP President Amit Shah on Wednesday asked the party's Rajasthan leaders to keep their internal fights aside and prepare for the upcoming assembly elections in the state unitedly.
According to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, Shah gave these tips to the state unit leaders during a meeting with Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje and several senior party leaders.
The BJP Chief also held discussion over the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and asked the party leaders to take the achievements of the Narendra Modi government to the people of the state.
Beside Raje, the meeting was attended by party Vice President Om Mathur, General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav, Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Meghwal, C.R. Choudhary and the state General Secretary (organization) Chandrasekhar.
Discussions were also held on the selection of party's state President, which is lying vacant since April this year after Ashok Pranami, a Raje lloyalist stepped down, after the party's stunning defeat in two Lok Sabha and one assembly by-polls earlier this year.
According to party leaders, Shah wanted to name Shekhawat, an MP from Jodhpur as the new state party President, a move opposed by Raje.
Raje had floated the names of Urban Development Minister Srichand Kriplani and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Arun Chaturvedi for the post, but the party leadership had rejected the nominees.
BJP's national Vice President and state in charge Avinash Rai Khanna told media after the meeting that there is no rift in the party over the state President's post. "Soon a decision would be taken on the name of the state party President," he said.
He also said that during the meeting, discussions were held on the party's preparation in the state for the coming assembly polls and Lok Sabha elections.
The party leaders have decided to begin a state wide Yatra covering entire assembly constituencies.
Sources also said that before meeting Shah, Raje along with her close aides held a meeting at the Bikaner House.
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Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.