Modi, Shah to hold dinner for BJP MPs

New Delhi: All BJP Members of Parliament are scheduled to meet over a dinner on Friday at its party headquarters, sources said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah will grace the meet instead of Parliament as it would be the first get-together at its new office here. "Both Modi and Shah will also address MPs from both the houses," sources added.

"The proposed meeting will take place at BJP's new headquarters here. All Union Ministers and Members of Parliament of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been asked to attend the meeting," sources further mentioned. However, a senior BJP leader called it a "general meeting."

Convening of such a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Party assumes significance for, conventionally, the party MPs used to meet during the session - either weekly or fortnightly - in morning hours in the Parliament premises only.

Even in the last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met all NDA leaders, essentially to discuss over the Presidential elections. This time also the party sources mentioned that "The ongoing rumpus in both the Houses and the strategy on its discontinuation will be discussed. Apart from that, the 2019 Lok Sabha election strategy will also be discussed."

In 2017 - the mood in saffron party camp was upbeat after its resounding success in UP polls and also after it could gain power in Congress-ruled Manipur and Uttarakhand. Even the party conquered states like Left-ruled Tripura and Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, including retaining power in both PM and party chief's home turf Gujarat.

However, this year many allies among total 32 NDA parties have exuded confidence over saffron party's 'development' mantra and grievances have emerged, both on the floor of the Houses and outside the Parliament. This has the potential to trigger significant twists and turns in political equations and alliance dynamics. Recently, ally party TDP withdrew support from NDA government. Shiv Sena also announced to go solo in both the upcoming General elections and State assembly elections. Most striking of all, the BJP also lost a few crucial bypolls to Lok Sabha including politically sensitive Gorakhpur and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, Araria in Bihar and also Ajmer in Rajasthan. LJP leader and Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had counseled BJP leadership that they must ensure better coordination among NDA partners.

The BJP MPs meet would also come at a time when key regional players like Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool) and K Chandrashekhar Rao (TRS) have made a strong pitch for floating of a front of regional parties.