SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) two-day national executive meeting started on Monday in the national Capital by setting the poll bugle while taking a pledge to win in all the nine Assembly elections due this year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the NDMC Convention Centre in New Delhi to attend the mega meeting, and also attended the party’s roadshow.
The political resolution was enacted during the brainstorming session, mentioning that the current year is “very crucial” for the incumbent party. Apart from the upcoming state elections, the general election is also due next year.
The party top brass urged all leaders — the states-in-charge, national general secretaries, national vice-presidents, morcha presidents, parliamentarians, and all state-level and national-level, even district-level workers to put all efforts to fulfil the mission of conquering the election battles. Assembly elections are scheduled in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tripura, and in Jammu and Kashmir in 2023.
Besides, during the first day of the national executive meeting here, reports were submitted to the party high command by the state units of Tripura, Nagaland, Karnataka and Meghalaya, which were discussed in detail, Union Finance minister and party’s senior leader Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned while talking to the media at the NDMC Convention Centre.
Meanwhile, the political resolution was presented by Union minister Kiren Rijiju and was passed by Uttar Pradesh’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Karnataka’s state Cabinet minister Govind Karjol. The resolution further emphasised nine issues — the “negative campaigns” that are being run by the opposition parties about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his governance along with “abusive language” being used in such campaigns. Sitharaman mentioned while briefing the political resolution: “It (resolution) emphasised the legal cases filed to counter such allegations and versions of various courts on such negative campaigns. We express our gratitude that in every instance, the legal institution crushed their (opposition political parties’) unholy intention to defame PM Modi’s transparent image and his ‘corruption-free’ governance.”
The resolution also praised and mentioned PM Narendra Modi’s foreign policies which have helped to recognise India in various important international platforms — whether in G7, G20, the recent summit on Global South nations or the Prime Minister’s statement on UN and IMF reforms.
Further, the political resolution praised PM Modi’s vision to promote spirituality and Indian cultural heritage, whether through Kashi Tamil Sangamam or revamping the old spiritual sites like the Kashi Vishwanath corridor, Mahakaleshwar corridor in Ujjain, Ram circuit, Buddha circuit etc.
Also, the political resolution highlighted the recent victory of the BJP in the Gujarat Assembly elections and the party leaders expressed gratitude to Modi for taking charge of the state election personally and managing every single aspect. “The victory and BJP’s stupendous performance in the state of Gujarat will have an impact on both the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. This is the seventh consecutive time, the party could manage to retain power with a better vote percentage from 50-53 per cent. Even BJP performed better in SC (reserved) and tribal seats. 11 SC (reserved) seats and 23 tribal seats have been won by BJP in these elections,” the political resolution added.
While talking to the media and briefing the resolution, the Union Finance minister also stated that even in urban seats, Bharatiya Janata Party performed well with 19 out of 21 in Ahmedabad, all 16 Assembly seats in Surat etc. However, the political resolution further talked about the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections where the saffron party failed to fulfil its slogan of changing the tradition of an alternate government every five years. But it mentioned that for the first time, the winning party managed to retain power with less than a 1 per cent margin in the hill state.
On the other hand, in his inaugural speech, BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda said under the guidance of PM Modi, the party leadership identified 72000 weak booths, which performed poorly in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in 100 parliamentary constituencies and 25 Assembly constituencies. However, so far, the party could reach a total of 1.3 lakh booths.
The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home minister Amit Shah, Defence minister Rajnath Singh and party president JP Nadda, including all general secretaries, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, all state presidents and other officials.
However, at the national executive, the BJP leadership is yet to announce the extension for party president JP Nadda, whose tenure ends later this month. Three resolutions are to be enacted to cover political, economic and foreign policy issues during this two-day session. The party will also go all out to promote G20 events following India getting the presidency of the elite grouping of 20 leading economies of the world.