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BJP’s executive meet from today; polls, party expansion on agenda
Apart from Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh that go to polls later this year, the party has begun preparations to put up a stiff fight to retain power in Karnataka.
Close on the heels of the political upheaval in Maharashtra that has culminated in the announcement of a new chief minister in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s top leadership will attend the national executive committee meeting that begins with the meeting of national general secretaries in Hyderabad on Friday.
The key decision-making meeting — which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior ministers and party leaders — will take stock of some recent highs and lows for the party and pass resolutions on the performance of the Union government and its handling of critical sectors in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Expected to be on the discussion table are issues related to the party’s performance in the assembly elections in five states earlier this year; the party’s pan-India expansion; BJP’s intent to form government in states where its growth has been stalled by regional satraps; and the electoral preparations for the 2024 general elections that have already begun.
“The party has already identified and begun work to strengthen its presence in nearly 74,000 booths where it needs to streamline the party work and put in more effort. The leaders will also discuss the plans for the upcoming elections and how the tally and vote share can increase,” said a party functionary, requesting anonymity.
Apart from Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh that go to polls later this year, the party has begun preparations to put up a stiff fight to retain power in Karnataka where there has been a change in leadership and a spate of controversies have kept the government in the headlines. The party is also aggressively campaigning in Telangana, where it has pitched itself as an alternative to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) led by chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
A state unit leader said Hyderabad itself was chosen as the venue for the national executive committee meeting as the party wanted to invigorate its cadre and send out the message that it is a key contender for the 2023 assembly elections.
The state of economy and some recent decisions of the Centre, including the new recruitment policy for the armed forces, Agnipath, that has met with fierce opposition, are also expected to come up for discussions. The government has already pressed into action an outreach to counter the anger against the policy, claiming it will not result in jobs cuts.
While the Opposition blames the government for failing to stem job losses and for the sliding growth rate, the government and the BJP have asserted that interventions such as free food grains and a cut on excise duty on fuel have helped mitigate the impact of the pandemic-induced financial crunch.
“The government ensured that no one went hungry, vaccines were made available in a short span of time, and a ₹20 lakh crore economic package was announced to help various sectors,” said the functionary quoted above.
The Telangana unit has also planned a roadshow to welcome party president JP Nadda and a public meeting will be addressed by PM Modi on July 3.
The 80-member national executive committee also includes 50 special invitees and 179 permanent invitees, including chief ministers, deputy chief ministers of BJP ruled states, leaders of the legislative assemblies, state presidents among others. As per the party’s constitution, at least 27 of the 80 members have to be women and eight from Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes communities to be nominated by the party president.
