The BJP, which has established itself as the biggest political force in north India, is now aiming to achieve similar strength in south India and efforts for realising this goal will begin immediately after the three-day national council currently on in Kozhikode, Kerala.
A leadership meet of the party, held on Saturday as part of the national council meeting, decided that the first step in this direction would be to win maximum number of seats from the South Indian States in the 2019 lok Sabha election. The BJP’s national council meeting had begun in the north Kerala city on Friday and will conclude on Sunday evening.
As per the decisions taken at the five-hour leadership meet which came to a close on Saturday afternoon at the Kadavu Resorts in Kozhikode, the State party units in southern States will start at the earliest the activities for preparing the ground for achieving the goal of making a huge impact in the next lok Sabha election.
The BJP will give shape to the extensive welfare schemes to be implemented for the benefit of the people of the lower strata in order to broaden the party as part of the efforts to broaden its base in the South Indian States. A comprehensive poverty-eradication programme is likely to be announced at the meeting of the national council on Sunday in the context of the upcoming Assembly elections.
“The BJP is already a big force in Karnataka. We now have to strengthen our base in the other States in the south. There are enough indications that the party is growing rapidly in the South,” said a top BJP leader. “Our assessment is that people are viewing the BJP as the only hope for them. This is true in the case of Kerala also where politics has revolved so far around two equally corrupt coalitions,” he added.
BJP president Amit Shah reportedly instructed Kerala’s party leadership to start the work immediately for attaining the target of winning 12 seats out of the total 20 in the State in the 2019 lok Sabha election. “It is a realistic target...It is not an unattainable target considering the growth the party has achieved since the 2011 Assembly election,” said a senior leader of the Kerala BJP.
Apart from opening account in the State Assembly in the May 16 election by winning a seat, the vote-share of the party had almost trebled in comparison to the vote-share it had got in the 2011 Assembly election. Also, the party’s vote-share in the lok Sabha election had grown from a mere 6.03 percent in 2009 to 10.3 per cent in 2014.
Criticisms came up in the group discussions of leaders from the South Indian States at the leadership meeting to the effect that the organisational activities were personality-oriented even in the booth levels in Kerala. The State party was asked to strengthen party work in the grassroots level.
While drawing up the list of candidates for the next lok Sabha election, members of the State core committee would get preference, as per the decision reached at the leadership meet. “Kerala is going to witness big political changes after this national council meeting,” said State BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan.