New Delhi: Setting the tone for upcoming Assembly polls in five states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the BJP National Executive Committee's meeting on Sunday, urged the party members to reach out to the public with the central government's welfare schemes and other achievements.
During his speech, PM Modi urged the party workers to become the "bridge of trust" between the incumbent regime and the 'common people'.
He also mentioned, "BJP does not follow the legacy politics, nor the party is driven by any political family. Whatever BJP has achieved so far, it is the result of the party workers' hard work."
"Serving the people (Seva), dedication towards the service and responsibility (Samarpan) and promise of serving people (Sankalp) should be the main focus for both the party leaders and the ground-level workers," PM Modi further mentioned in his speech.
He further applauded the BJP's initiatives during the lockdown under the leadership of party president Jagat Prakash Nadda.
Keeping the COVID protocol in mind, the National Executive meeting witnessed the physical presence of 125 BJP representatives and the rest of the committee members and special invitees joined virtually. The last meeting was organised in 2019 at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
During the meeting, former party presidents- Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and the incumbent party chief JP Nadda felicitated Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his government's recent achievement of administering 100 crore vaccine doses.
The political resolution which was presented by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and passed by Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai this time, stressed, "Entire world has applauded India's initiatives, strength and capabilities during Corona crisis. India to guide the world in the direction of protecting humanity and conserving the environment and nature and has emerged as a leading country."
The resolution highlighted a total 18 points including political, economic and foreign diplomatic policies. "Under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has administered 100 crores vaccination in just 278 days (working a total of 41 lakh man-days). History has been created by crossing the milestone of vaccination," it mentioned, adding PM Modi's message of 'One Earth One Health' for global solidarity in the fight against Corona at the G20 Summit in Rome.
Further, the resolution highlighted the central government's schemes, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), PM's Care for Children, Kisan Samman Nidhi, Ayushman Bharat health scheme and others.
BJP president JP Nadda mentioned in his opening remark that "Entire Europe's population is 75 crore, whereas under PM Modi's ration scheme, 80 crore people are being provided free ration in every month."
While addressing the media persons at the NDMC Convention Centre Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the pandemic has hit the world economy, still, Modi government made a self-reliant India, emphasized on investment and fundamental reforms, facilitated 80 crores poor by sending ration, gas cylinders and money directly to the bank. The government worked towards both taking care of the economy and livelihood.
The six pages political resolution also mentioned that, after the abrogation of Article 370, BDC and DDC elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir peacefully and the people participated fearlessly and in the last two years, 54 projects worth Rs 56,261 crore were initiated in the valley. In January of this year, the industry promotion scheme of Rs 28,400 crore started. Earlier in 2020, a special package of Rs 80,000 crore was allotted. Moreover, between 2004 and 2014 terror incidents killed 2,081 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir but only 239 such death occurred from 2014 to September 2021.
The party leadership further expressed gratitude to the people of West Bengal as the political resolution mentioned that in just five years the BJP's vote percentage increased to 38 per cent, in 18 Lok Sabha seats and 77 Assembly seats.
The participants of the National Executive Committee's meeting further condemned the alleged post-poll violence incidents across the states and Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that "The state party workers have given shelters to almost 1 lakh people and are taking care of them in the state."
Amid the farmers' protest against Modi government's new three farm laws, BJP's political resolution highlighted the farmers' welfare schemes taken up by the Government of India since the BJP came into power.
"PM Modi's government has brought reforms in the crop insurance scheme, increased MSP by one and a half times, introduced Kisan credit card system for small farmers, and an incredible decision of increasing the subsidy to DAP and Urea and giving it to the farmer at the old price," it mentioned.
Adding further, it said, "Schemes related to solar power, initiative to reach water to every farm, formation of FPOs, all these efforts have started benefitting farmers. Moreover, the Kisan Rail is running on more than 70 rail routes of the country, which has benefitted the transportation."
Meanwhile, state presidents of all poll-bound states- Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa and Manipur talked about state party wings' initiatives and political resolutions to win the Assembly elections. "It was all about a positive session where we discussed the ways to reach out to people more and our win in the coming elections," Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed media persons.
Meanwhile, the BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda has set a target of forming page committees in all 10 lakh 40,000 booths across the country by December 25, 2021, whereas the appointment of the page in-charge will be finished by April 2022. "Currently there are page committees and page in-charges in 85 per cent booth, but we have to make it 100 per cent by the given timeline," Nadda told the participants during his speech.
BJP veterans Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi also joined the executive meeting virtually from their respective residents. 344 members, including the special invitees, joined the meeting. The executive is a key deliberative body of the saffron party which meets to discuss key issues facing the government and shapes the organisation's agenda.
New ministers are also being inducted this time, including Ashwini Vaishnaw. Moreover, former Union ministers like Harsh Vardhan, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar also remain members of the national executive, who were dropped from cabinet posts in the recent reshuffle.