NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the new BJP headquarters, a multi-storeyed modern construction fitted with latest communication technologies, in the presence of top party leaders, including its president Amit Shah and party veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
The new party office is located at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, and will have 126 rooms. This will make BJP the first major national party to shift its office outside Lutyens' Bungalow Zone, following a Supreme Court directive that party offices should be relocated from there.
The first floor has a media corner with live-streaming facilities of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's programmes. The second floor will house the offices of party secretaries. The social media and IT cells and the media coordination cell have been set up on the third floor. The fourth floor will have a conference room, library and meeting rooms. The party president's office is on the fifth floor, while the top floor would host exhibitions.
Asserting that the BJP and its forerunner Jana Sangh had since Independence led all agitations held in the national interest, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said democracy is the party's core value which enables it to take along allies successfully.
Modi charted the party's growth since its inception as Bhartiya Jana Sangh in 1951 and said it has never wavered from its founding ideals and is full of patriotism.
The Jana Sangh was founded because after Independence a need was felt to have one or two more strong national parties, Modi said.
At a time when some of his allies, including the TDP, have spoken about their differences with the BJP, the prime minister recalled the work of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.
While addressing the programme BJP chief Amit Shah mentioned that 19 divisions of the party had been set up inside the large premises and it also had separate offices for 11 party initiatives.
"BJP does not believe in electoral politics rather aims for a 'new India' under the leadership of PM Modi," Shah said. The party chief said that many properties had been acquired for new party offices in different states.