Prepare ground for better show in 2019: Amit Shah to BJP cadres

BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday asked party leaders to chart a winning path for the outfit from "Kashmir to Kanyakumari", adding that they should prepare the ground for a "better show in 2019" and not just be satisfied with the previous (2014) Lok Sabha results.

Addressing the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting here on its foundation day, he asked party MPs to work for strengthening the outfit in states where its reach remained limited and exhorted them to take the "NaMo track record" of governance to the masses.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not present at the meet as he had left for the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand to attend an event.

Shah asked the MPs to "obey with smile" the top brass' directives for events slated for the next few days.

The BJP has come out with a series of programmes for its parliamentarians and other leaders during the eight-day long period between April 6, its foundation day, and April 14, the birth anniversary of Dalit icon Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

The programmes will focus particularly on the states and the Lok Sabha seats, where the party had not performed well in the 2014 elections so as to improve the party prospects in 2019. The BJP has lined up programmes of Union ministers and senior leaders in these places.

Shah told the saffron leaders that they should not sit back with satisfaction after getting 272 seats (majority mark in the Lok Sabha) but aim for more. The BJP had won 282 seats in the 2014 polls.

BJP's allies may be present in several states where the party is not strong but it should not deter its leaders from working to boost its strength, he said.

"You have NaMO (Narendra Modi) track record starting from Gujarat before you. Take the NaMO role model of good governance and development to the masses... Modi had said in 2014 that the three factors of casteism, family rule and appeasement fail Indian politics.

"People had dealt a blow to these factors by voting for the BJP in 2014. They have done it again in the recent Uttar Pradesh polls. We have vowed to rid polity of these ills," he said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar briefed reporters following the meeting and said apart from promoting digitisation and Bhim app, a digital payment interface, the party leaders will also inform the masses about benefits of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) during the period.