Giving a call to party organisations to win all nine States going to the polls this year as a prelude to the Lok Sabha poll 2024, BJP president JP Nadda on Monday informed the delegates in the BJP National Executive that the party had strengthened 1,30,000 booths identified as “weak”.
He also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “putting the country at the centre stage of the global polity” and making it as the fifth largest economy “surpassing England”. After a long deliberation, BJP leader Kiren Rijiju proposed a political resolution at the meeting, accusing the Opposition of using abusive language in the campaign against Modi. The resolution cited nine issues, including Rafale, Pegasus and demonetisation, and cited Supreme Court’s verdicts “exposing” Opposition’s “negative campaigning.”
Briefing news persons after the political resolution proposed by Rijiju and seconded by the two Deputy CMs of UP and Karnataka was adopted, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the National Executive lauded the Prime Minister and congratulated him for the party “legally” winning the cases and rejecting the regular “negative campaign” by the Opposition.
The other issues and cases listed by the BJP where Modi was targeted and rejected by the courts included “EWS reservation, demonetisation and Central Vista.”
The resolution credited Modi for elevating “band value” of India globally with the Bali G-20 communiqué quoting the Prime Minister saying “this is not an era of war” and world leaders accepting his line of need to bring reforms in the United Nations.
It also discussed the “historic win” in Gujarat where the BJP converted “anti-incumbency to pro-incumbency” which would have an impact on all the upcoming nine Assembly polls in the year, she said.
Earlier, delivering his inaugural address to the two-day meeting of the National Executive that commenced here at the NDMC centre, Nadda said the Prime Minister has brought back the glory of Indian heritage by back by building and renovating temple corridors and also moved the country away from the “slave colonial mentality” by changing 70 year old ‘Rajpath’ to “Kartavya Path”.
He informed the delegates that the Prime Minister would attend the function marking 200 years of the social reformer Dayanand Saraswati on February 13 as he is already implementing the Sarswati’s call for “connecting the last mile marginalised man in the country’ by various welfare and economic programmes. The meet of the top body of the BJP which was attended by all Central Ministers, including Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, BJP-ruled Chief Ministers and around 600 delegates was preceded by a road show of the Prime Minister starting from Patel Chowk and till the NDMC convention centre.
At the venue of the meeting BJP also organised an exhibition showcasing cultural nationalism and the ongoing construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
While BJP State presidents of Karnataka, Tripura, Nagaland & Meghalaya presented their reports at the National Executive meeting, the party’s presidents of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana & Mizoram will present their State reports on Tuesday.
Giving the details of Nadda’s presidential address in the close-door meeting , BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad said the party president underlined the importance of the nine State Assembly polls to be held this year in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and asked the party’s national executive to ensure it does not lose in any States, including in Telangana. The BJP president noted that the ongoing year was very important in the prelude to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The ruling party has been putting in place a number of exercises to strengthen its organisation to ensure that it comes back to power in 2024 at the Centre for a third term.
Nadda said the Prime Minister had mandated that 72000 “weak polling booths” be consolidated and the party has gone beyond this number and “reached 1,30000 polling booth”. The BJP president lauded India’s progress under Narendra Modi-led Government and cited US president Joe Biden for praising India’s vaccination drive which “reached 220 crore” and Russian President Vladmi Puti lauding India’s “independent foreign policy” under Modi.
Nadda said India has become the world’s fifth-largest economy, second-largest manufacturer of mobile phones, third-largest manufacturer in the auto sector while the highway being built every day has risen to 37 km from 12 km earlier. He said under Modi’s leadership India is now exporting defence products and lowered its import. “Earlier, there used to be “deal within the defence deal “ but that is not now the case..” , he said indirectly attacking the previous Congress rule.
The country has also worked to empower the poor with a number of welfare schemes, including that of free grains, he added. Nadda praised the party’s win in the recent Gujarat Assembly polls as “extraordinary and historic”, saying winning more than 150 seats in the 182-member Assembly is a great achievement. The BJP president specially mentioned ‘har ghar tiranga” campaign in each home and noted that the entire North East took it “very enthusiastically “” The campaign has greatly contributed to the main streaming of the NE” which has been visited by the Prime Minister 50 times, he said.
On the Himachal setback, the BJP chief said “though we wanted to change ‘rivaj’ (tradition) of Himachal Pradesh” of not repeating a party twice “but we lost with a small margin of one per vote”.
The National Executive meet would conclude on Tuesday with the address of Modi.
