BJP national executive meets

A two-day National Executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party began in Patna today with an address by party president Nitin Gadkari.

A two-day National Executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began in Patna on Saturday with an address by party president Nitin Gadkari.

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The meeting, at the Maurya Hotel, is expected to kickstart the party's campaign for assembly elections in the state this year.

Party leaders L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi, M. Venkaiah Naidu and Rajnath Singh are among those taking part in the discussions.

The chief ministers of BJP-ruled states present include Narendra Modi (Gujarat), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Prem Kumar Dhumal (Himachal Pradesh) and B.S. Yeddyurappa (Karanataka), said Bihar party president C.P. Thakur.

According to BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, the meeting will discuss a strategy to be adopted for the Bihar polls due in October-November.

It will also discuss the situation in Jharkhand following the imposition of President's Rule.

The assembly polls in Bihar are crucial for the BJP, which has seen top-level organisational changes after its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls last year.

The BJP is a partner of the coalition government in Bihar headed by the Janata Dal-United (JD-U).