In 2024 poll push, PM Modi tells BJP leaders to work in ‘mission mode’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has instructed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members to work in "mission mode" and ensure the full implementation of government projects and welfare schemes. The party is preparing for the 2024 general elections and aims to win more seats than in 2019. Modi emphasized the importance of empowering women, the poor, young, and farmers through government programs. The party will also focus on improving its performance in Lok Sabha constituencies where it was lacking. Additionally, the government aims to ensure that eligible individuals are not left out of welfare schemes through the Viksit Bharat Campaign.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday told Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members to work in “mission mode” and ensure that government projects are implemented fully without any lag in welfare schemes, said people aware of the development, as the party sought to make a head start for the 2024 general elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi being welcomed by BJP president JP Nadda as he arrives to attend the BJP national office bearers' meeting, at the party office in New Delhi on Friday. (JP Nadda-X/ANI)

Modi was speaking to national and state office bearers of the BJP at a two-day meeting in Delhi. The closed-door meeting was scheduled to discuss the minutiae of the electoral plan, take stock of the issues that the Opposition could use to corner the government, and assess the preparedness of the cadre for the big electoral battle.

The party leadership has set a target of winning more seats in elections scheduled next summer than the 2019 tally of 303.

According to a party functionary, Modi told the leaders that they should ensure that the government’s programmes for the empowerment of the women, poor, young and farmers are implemented, and that there is no lag in welfare schemes.

“Today, a two-day national officers’ meeting was inaugurated in the dignified presence of the respected PM Narendra Modi ji at the BJP central office extension in New Delhi,” said BJP chief JP Nadda on X, formerly Twitter.

The meeting came weeks after the BJP’s impressive victories in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh -- a shot in the arm for the party that had lost assembly polls in these heartland states in 2018. To be sure, the loss five years ago had no adverse impact on its performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when it won 62 out of the 65 seats on offer in these states.

A second party functionary said leaders at the meeting will review the work undertaken to improve the party’s showing in the 160 Lok Sabha constituencies where its performance was found lacking. For the past one year, the party has deputed senior leaders including Union ministers to oversee the election preparation in seats where it either never won or lost by a thin margin.

“There is a possibility of announcing candidates for these seats in the next one month, to give them enough time to campaign and understand the intricacies of the constituency,” said the second party functionary.

The party’s experiment of announcing candidates for seats designated as “weak” began in the last round of assembly polls and paid off. For instance, in MP, it won 24 of the 39 seats announced in this first list, which were seats designated as weak for the BJP.

The other key area discussed at the meeting was the saturation of social schemes said people aware of developments. WITH beneficiaries emerging as a strong votebank for the party, the government has initiated the Viksit Bharat Campaign that seeks to ensure that no eligible individual is left out of the welfare net.

“Women, poor, farmers, and the youth have been identified as four castes by the PM...so the party will come up with ways to ensure that there are more concerted efforts by way of policies and schemes for the empowerment of these groups,” said the functionary quoted above.

In states where the BJP is not in power, the cadre has been instructed to ensure that there are no obstructions created in the disbursal of aid under central government schemes. “In some of the Opposition-ruled states such as West Bengal, the state government has been creating hurdles for the disbursal of money to farmers under the PM Kisan Nidhi... in some other states, the names of the central government schemes have been changed to make it look like a state sponsored programme. So, our cadre has been instructed to ensure out schemes are not hijacked,” said a third functionary privy to the details.