NEW DELHI: Blowing the poll bugle for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP chief Amit Shah set the tone for a “BJP Vs All” poll battle next year. Stating that there’s a myth that the BJP government doesn’t win re-elections, Shah said that 2019 would prove that the saffron outfit could win back-to-back general elections as well.
Striking a confident note a day before the crucial Karnataka verdict, Shah said the BJP wouldn’t have a sense of satisfaction till the party comes to power in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and West Bengal. Shah said that party has been able to win 11 elections in states after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on the basis of the organisational strength and the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Presiding over a day-long national office-bearers meeting, Shah sought to give a position of pre-eminence to party workers. “It’s our good fortune that we have Prime Minister leading us, but we’re winning elections also on account of the strength of party workers. The BJP has 11 crore workers, and now even the Opposition parties have begun copying us,” Shah said in his concluding speech. The BJP chief’s remarks were apparently on the Congress too paying attention to forming booth-level committees.
The meeting, which consisted of all the state unit chiefs and office-bearers, split into several groups to take a closer look at the performance of the party in states. Modi, besides Shah, would preside over the national executive of various fronts of the saffron outfit on Thursday, which is being seen as a precursor to launching of an aggressive outreach programme to take the achievements of the government to the people. The deliberations seemingly had a sense of an urgency to build new catchment areas for the saffron outfit, particularly in the southern and eastern states to offset any climb-down from the peak in the northern and western states from the 2014 level.
“The world looks at the US. We have a vision that the world should look at India. The Modi government has done good works in the last four years. We will demonstrate in 2019 that the BJP also knows how to return to power at the Centre,” Shah reportedly told the conclave.
Even as the BJP is bracing for key elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh later this year, Shah seemingly conveyed to the party that the battle for 2019 Lok Sabha elections would henceforth be driving the party.