Allahabad: With an eye on the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly election next year, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) national executive will begin its two-day meet in Allahabad.
The meet will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah among others. Senior members of the Union Cabinet, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and members of Parliament will also take part in the meet, which is likely to set the agenda for the Assembly elections in the state which are less than a year away.
Ahead of the BJP’s national executive meeting, a meeting of the party’s national office-bearers began at a city hotel with party president Amit Shah chairing it.
While Modi would arrive here later in the day for the executive meeting, Shah, veteran leader Murli Manoharj Joshi, party general secretaries Ram Madhav, Ram Lal and Bhupendra Yadav, national secretaries Siddharth Nath Singh and Shrikant Sharma and party spokesman Sambit Patra have already reached the city.
"Allahabad has been the state's political epicentre and the place where stalwarts ranging from Jawaharlal Nehru to VP Singh have learnt their ropes. And a party meeting organised here will certainly have a catalytic effect on our efforts to bring about political change in Uttar Pradesh," says BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh, who has been camping in the city since Thursday.
It is expected that the meeting will see a sharp attack on the Samajwadi Party government for poor governance and deteriorating law and order on the backdrop of Mathura incident where two senior police officers were killed by lawless cult members.
Posters have come up across the city displaying the header ‘Mission 265 Plus’ — a term coined by Shah who has repeatedly exhorted workers to aim at achieving a thumping majority for the party in the 403-strong UP assembly.
The BJP at present has less than 50 MLAs in the house, a massive decline since the 1990s when it used to be the top political group in the state.
BJP has brought several new faces to its national executive, the highlight being some former Congress leaders, including former Odisha Chief Minister and tribal leader Giridhar Gamang and saffron party leader K.V. Singh Deo, also from that state. Deo is a former state party chief.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, who defected from Congress to BJP and played a key role in its big Assam win, and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, a new entrant to the saffron party, have also been inducted into the national executive.
The BJP national executive will also discuss the achievements of the Modi government to establish that critics who raised questions about the PM's lack of experience at the Centre have been proved wrong.
Shah, at a recent rally on the outskirts of the city, had stated "if there is one state which is responsible for helping the BJP get a majority in Parliament, it is UP" while party vice-president and in-charge for the state Om Mathur had said "many issues would be discussed at the national executive but the main focus would obviously be on the UP assembly polls due next year"
Enthusiasm is palpable among party foot soldiers as for the first time since its establishment three decades ago, the BJP has chosen the city for holding its national executive
Almost all the streets and roundabouts are dotted with billboards or posters welcoming Modi and other leaders to the city and exhorting residents to turn out in huge numbers for the rally which will be held on Monday, immediately after the conclusion of the meeting. .
The biggest challenge of BJP will be to find a credible and widely acceptable face for the next year’s elections. Faces which found prominence in the posters put up in the city ahead of the meet were of Rajnath Singh and Varun Gandhi beside PM Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah.
Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi’s face could be seen on most of the hoardings in the city, which is not a surprise as most of the surveys put him as the most favourite BJP leader for the CM post. However, this comes amid the reports that party leadership is trying to cut him down to size. According to a recent report, the party was unhappy with Varun Gandhi for visiting Allahabad on May 1 and the young leader has been asked to restrict his movements to his constituency.
