BJP president and Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda on Thursday reviewed preparations for the upcoming Assembly polls, asking party leaders to reach out to new groups of people from various social segments and areas for better electoral impact.
Nadda visited the BJP's Delhi unit office and spent more than four hours meeting the in-charges and members of various poll panels, state functionaries and frontal organisations. He reviewed the preparations for the elections to 70-member Delhi Assembly on February 5.
The party, in a statement, said, “BJP National President Jagat Prakash Nadda participated in election management meetings held at the Delhi BJP office today. In two separate meetings, Jagat Prakash Nadda interacted with members of the Election Steering Committee and the Election Management Committee to gather updates on electoral arrangements and provided guidance for improvement.”
“Jagat Prakash Nadda stated that this election offers an opportunity to choose between Arvind Kejriwal’s falsehoods and corruption and BJP’s truth and development. He expressed confidence that the people of Delhi would make the right choice and free the city from AAP-induced disasters,” it added.
"The BJP national president said the party unit's outreach programmes and campaigns should focus on meeting new people and convincing them to support the BJP for better electoral results. He said interacting with the same set of people who support the party does not bear fruit," said a senior Delhi BJP functionary.
Nadda was informed during the course of the review meetings that more than one lakh women have been contacted through various campaigns and programmes so far.
The BJP chief asked the party's Mahila Morcha (women's wing) to reach out to more women ahead of the polls.
He sought to boost the morale of the BJP leaders, saying the entire party needs to jump into the elections as a unified force to ensure the party's victory, the functionary said.
Some functionaries present in the meeting said Nadda told the leaders that there are a limited number of tickets in elections and everyone cannot get one.< He said a real leader does not get disheartened if he fails to get a chance to contest the elections. "A leader will remain a leader even if she or he does not get a ticket," he said.
The BJP has so far announced candidates on 29 of the 70 seats. The remaining candidates are likely to be announced soon as the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the party is meeting on Friday. The BJP is making all-out efforts to return to power after over 26 years. The party won the first Assembly polls in Delhi in 1993. It has remained out of power since 1998, losing to the Congress in three consecutive elections till 2013 and since then by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
In the last two polls in 2015 and 2020, the party was completely routed by AAP, scraping through with just three and eight seats respectively. Various poll committees including those for campaign, manifesto and narrative among others as well as frontal organisations gave reports to the BJP chief.
The meetings, chaired by Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva, were attended by Delhi Election In-charge and Member of Parliament Baijayant Panda, Co-Election In-charge MP Atul Garg, Co-Election In-charge Dr. Alka Gurjar, Organizational General Secretary Pawan Rana, Election Steering Committee Head MP Harsh Malhotra, and Co-Head MP Manoj Tiwari.
