BJP National Executive Meeting: Sounding The Poll Bugle
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-01-19 06:46:42
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
BJP president J P Nadda, whose term has been extended till June 2024 in the recent national executive meeting of the party, has declared that the goal of the party is to win all 9 state elections scheduled to be held in 2023 and then the 2024 general elections under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. The elections for the three North-Eastern states - Tripura, Meghlaya and Nagaland have already been announced by the Election Commission in February. After that, elections will be held in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Mizoram. In all these states, the BJP faces a tough time and although the charisma of Prime Minister Modi works favourably for the party in national elections, it is not so in state elections. Hence, Nadda is overly optimistic in winning all the 9 states, either alone or as part of an alliance.
In the national executive meeting, Prime Minister Modi called upon party cadre to work for all sections of society, especially the marginalized. He also exhorted party workers to leave aside poll considerations and work for the betterment of the lot of the marginalized. Prime Minister Modi also took cognizance of the ugly spat that some BJP leaders engage in with filmmakers and asked party leaders to refrain from making ill-informed remarks on films. This is especially welcome after the controversy over the colour of Dipika Padukone's bikini and Shah Rukh Khan's t-shirt in the film Pathan. The colour scheme was given a different, communal colour by BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra and he threatened to block the film in the state if the visuals were not changed. Prime Minister Modi's advice to party leaders to back off is likely to take the wind out of the sails of those who initiated the 'boycott bollywood' trend and other such mischief makers.
The national executive meeting also decided to focus on 160 Lok Sabha seats that the BJP considers it can win if it puts in effort to win the confidence of the people in those parliamentary segments. It is also clear that Hindutva will remain the main plank for the party. This was also proved when a couple of weeks before the national executive meeting, home minister Amit Shah said that the Ram Temple in Ayodhya will be ready for the public in January 2024, just before the Lok Sabh elections, expected in May 2024. The BJP is going to use the Ram Temple, the various developmental and welfare schemes under Prime Minister Modi and the focus on national security as its main planks in the 2024 elections along with a massive outreach to marginalized sections of the society.
