Briefing reporters on Bharatiya Janta Party chief JP Nadda's address to the party national executive meeting underway in Delhi, party leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the party president noted that the ongoing year was very important in the prelude to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The two-day meeting of the top party body began on Monday.
Ensure party does not lose any of 9 state polls in 2023: Nadda
BJP president J P Nadda 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 state.
Focus on 72,000 booths
"PM gave the mandate that we should identify weak booths and strengthen them and increase outreach. 72,000 booths were identified and today BJP president conveyed in the address that 1.32 lakh booths were reached," said Prasad
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, in his closed-door address, lauded India's progress under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.
It 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, the party president said.
The country has also worked to empower the poor with a number of welfare schemes, including that of free grains, he added.
Gujarat victory hailed at meeting
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.
While the party lost in Himachal Pradesh to the Congress, the vote gap between the two parties was less than one per cent, he said.
Resolution against Opposition proposed
Political resolution proposed at the BJP national executive accused the Opposition of running negative campaign and using abusive language against the government, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and asserted that Supreme Court verdicts exposed it. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju proposed the resolution at the key meeting, a pointer to his rising profile in the party as he spearheads the government's position on legal and judicial issues, and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Karnataka minister Govind Karjol seconded it, Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here.
While Rijiju is a tribal, Maurya belongs to the Other Backward Class and Karjol is from the SC community, social groups the BJP has wooed with considerable electoral success in the last few years.
Sitharaman cited a number of issues over which the Opposition had built a campaign against the government, including Rafale, Pegasus, Central Vista project, demonetisation and EWS quota, and said the Supreme Court verdicts in the government's favour on them exposed it. Unfounded allegations were levelled against PM Modi but the crushing legal response exposed the Opposition, she said, citing political resolution. She said PM Modi is seen as an incorruptible leader who is working for the country's interest and whose leadership has found respect globally. India's image under his leadership has also been enhanced, she added. Modi's assertion that this is not an era of war during his telephonic talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin echoed in the G20 declaration at Bali and his push for United Nations reform has been recognised, she said.
PM Modi holds mega roadshow
Enthused BJP workers and supporters lined the roads to greet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his roadshow here as the party's two-day national executive began in Delhi on Monday.
In an atmosphere enlivened by music and the cheering crowd, the roadshow started from Patel Chowk and continued till the NDMC convention centre. People showered Modi with flower petals and chanted slogans in his support.
Huge cutouts of the prime minister were placed along the road, besides several posters highlighting various initiatives of the government and also India's presidency of the G20. Stages had been erected at places. Folk artistes from several states performed on some of them, while others blared patriotic songs. BJP president J P Nadda welcomed Modi at the venue of the party's meeting, which started upon the prime minister's arrival.
While Modi has frequently been holding roadshows, it is not very often that he does it ahead of the party executive, which has been organised several times in the national capital now.
BJP leaders noted that Modi had held a roadshow ahead of the party's national executive in Odisha, and added that the exercise proved to be helpful in galvanising cadre and supporters.
With Lok Sabha polls due in the first half of next year, the enthusiastic roadshow will also help energise the party's Delhi unit after its loss to the Aam Aadmi Party in the recent municipal polls, they said.
