Modi asks party officials to work as a bridge between Govt and masses
With his dispensation at the Centre picking up steam following the landslide win in the lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi now has his eyes set on half-a-dozen States going to polls this year and in 2015 even as he wants party functionaries to be accessible to common people and work as a bridge between the Government and masses.
On Saturday, he hosted BJP’s general secretaries over a breakfast at his 7 RCR residence where he stressed on not letting their guards down and continue with the good work by further strengthening the organisation, which is in a galvanised mode due to the party’s stupendous showing.
Apparently, keeping the UPA’s mistakes in mind, Modi also asked the leaders to constantly ensure that there was a kind of “biological” contact between the party and the Government and that information on Government plans and programmes for the welfare of masses were properly disseminated at the ground level.
Haryana, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh will have their Assembly elections later this year, while Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir and Bihar, next year. Against this backdrop, Modi asked the general secretaries to “work hard” to see that the party achieves “newer political goals”.
The general secretaries gave their inputs on ways to expand party’s base and providing newer platforms to workers to air their views or grievances. Modi emphasised on further strengthening of the organisation with the workers getting galvanised during the elections.
Setting a personal example, Modi is to meet party workers and leaders at the BJP headquarters on Sunday to thank them for contributing in ensuring “the historic” electoral victory on May 16. Ministers in the BJP Government are expected to meet Modi on Monday ahead of the Parliament session, beginning on June 4.
Modi’s meeting with the general secretaries, the first of its kind after he took charge as Prime Minister, is seen as his bid to keep the organisation highly active. He entrusted the party with the responsibility of alerting the government on necessary steps required to be taken to implement the promises made to the people in the party manifesto, sources said.
“Inspired by motivational msg from Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi ji, at a meeting with party GSs, to serve party and nation with renewed vigour,” party general secretary Varun Gandhi tweeted after the meeting.
The party is already gearing up for a change of guard at the top as incumbent president Rajnath Singh is now the Union Home Minister. Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari met Modi during the day.
The names of general secretaries Amit Shah, JP Nadda and RS member and former Rajasthan BJP president Om Mathur are currently doing the rounds for the post of party chief. Shah, as also Mathur, is close confidants of Modi. Shah has been highly appreciated by the Prime Minister himself for his role in securing 73 seats for NDA (BJP 71) in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 lok Sabha polls as against BJP’s poor tally of 10 lS seats in 2009 elections.
Besides Rajnath, three vice-presidents of the party --- Jual Oram, Uma Bharti and Smriti Irani --- and three general secretaries --- Ananth Kumar, Thawarchand Gehlot and Dharmendra Pradhan --- have become Ministers.
Party treasurer Piyush Goel and two spokespersons Prakash Javadekar and Nirmala Sitharaman have also been inducted in the Government. At State-level, Narendra Singh Tomar, Madhya Pradesh party president, has been moved into the Modi’s Council of Ministers.
With experienced hands shifting to the Government, many “fresh faces” are likely to join the party. As at the central level, the party state-units would also be restructured and “young leaders” may be put in charge to implement a long-term organisational agenda, according to sources.
The RSS has been kept in loop in the task of “re-vitalizing” the organisational tree, they said.
Among the party leaders who attended today’s meeting were BJP president Rajnath Singh, general secretary (organisation) Ram lal and Amit Shah, Ananth Kumar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Varun Gandhi, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Thawarchand Gehlot, J P Nadda, Tapir Gao and Murlidhar Rao.