Narendra Modi charts out road map for 2014 polls

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi made his maiden appearance at the BJP parliamentary board, and, without wasting any time, took a full plunge into the nitty-gritty of chalking out the party’s plans for the Lok Sabha polls.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi made his maiden appearance at the BJP parliamentary board, and, without wasting any time, took a full plunge into the nitty-gritty of chalking out the party’s plans for the Lok Sabha polls.

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In fact, Modi spent the whole day at 11, Ashoka Road headquarters of the BJP even after interacting with LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely and Nitin Gadkari to work out details of a “war strategy” that will be unveiled at the Goa conclave of the party on June 8 and 9.

In fact, it was after 12 years that Modi had spent so much time in the BJP HQ, where he served as a general secretary before he went to Gujarat as the CM in 2001.

Modi drove to BJP president Rajnath Singh’s residence for a working lunch with him. Both leaders apparently “fined tuned” steps to put up a tough fight to avoid a repeat of 2004 and 2009 outcomes.

Only last Sunday, Singh ended ambivalence about Modi’s role when he entrusted crucial Uttar Pradesh affairs to the latter’s close aide, Amit Shah.

As a result, Modi’s act of devoting the entire day for party workers left other BJP leaders in no doubt about his exact role he would play in the months ahead — even if a formal announcement on the PM candidate is delayed.

Modi’s mantra, as BJP insiders put it, is for an aggressive offensive against the UPA’s 9 years rule, enthuse party workers to “sweat it out” to push the Congress into a corner.

Modi also wanted the social media to be put to optimum use for reaching out to the youth. As for giving a picture of unity and discipline in BJP, Modi made it a point to call on AB Vajpayee, Advani and former party chief Nitin Gadkari.

He described on twitter that his meeting with Advani was “wonderful” to scotch the talk of any distance developing between them. As he left for Ahmedabad, Modi told HT that “it was a long day indeed, and we had very frutiful interaction.”

BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar said, “We discussed the nine years of UPA rule. This government has failed on all fronts, be it price rise, internal and external security or the economic situation. BJP will launch a jail bharo (court arrest) programme from May 27 to June 2.”