A meeting of expanded National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that included 33 allies of the BJP, on Monday passed a resolution to work together to succeed in 2019 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
leaders of 33 BJP allies, including the new friends it has won over in Goa and North-East States, attended the meeting at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra ahead of election to the top constitutional posts of the President and Vice-President due this year. The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Modi, said Senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray (with whom BJP has not been in the best of terms), Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Former Punjab Chief Minister and Shrimoni Akali Dal head Prakash Singh Badal attended the meeting.
Seen as a show of strength after BJP's major victories in four States — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur — where it installed its Governments, the dinner was an exercise to consolidate backing of all its allies in the Presidential poll. While President Pranab Mukherjee would demit his office in July, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, elected twice, would retire in August, this year.
The NDA gathering, the second such comprehensive meeting since 2014 election win of the BJP-led-alliance, also assessed political scenario in the country ahead of 2019 polls. BJP president Amit Shah and several Cabinet Ministers attended the meet.
The allies who attended the meet also included Union Ministers Ramvilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha besides Jitan Ram Manjhi from Bihar, Union Minister Anupriya Patel and Om Rajbhar from UP, besides a host of allies from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and other States attended the meeting.
These apart, Sajjad lone from Kashmir, Ramdas Athavale, Raju Shetty and Mahadev Jankar from Maharashtra, Vijai Sardesai and Sudhir Dhavalikar from Goa, PC Thomas and Vellappally from Kerala and Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling also made their presence in the meet.
Total number of votes in electoral college for President's election stand at 10.98 lakh with the majority mark to be around 5.49 lakh votes. (The total value of MlA votes is 5,49,474 and the total MP votes is 5,49,408.) The NDA is estimated to be running short of around 17,000 votes.
Mukherjee had won the Presidential elections in July 2012 by getting 713,763 votes, about 70 per cent of the total polled beating former lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma, who was supported by the NDA.