BJP president Rajnath Singh on Tuesday convened a meeting of the party’s Parliamentary Board, which was attended, among others, by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Against the backdrop of the Karnataka debacle, the BJP top brass discussed a roadmap leading to the general elections, and the agenda for the forthcoming national executive meet in Goa. Modi said the party “should go to the people with the failings of the UPA Government in the last nine years”. He suggested that the same be discussed at the Goa meet as well.
And on Wednesday, the ninth anniversary of the Congress-led UPA government, the party will field Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley to highlight the “failures of the government”. The two leaders will come out with a document enlisting the scams and corruption cases unearthed during the UPA rule.
Six other members -- L K Advani, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma, Jaitley, Ananth Kumar and Ram Lal-- also attended the Board meeting.
Sushma left the meeting half-way through, triggering rumours that she fell out with the leaders over the PM candidate. It was, however, clarified soon that she had an appointment with President Pranab Mukherjee.
The party also discussed the need to connect with the youth and Modi cited the potential of social media, sharing his own experience in Gujarat.
“We discussed the nine years of UPA misrule. This government has failed on all fronts -- whether it’s price rise, probity in public life, internal and external security or the economic situation. We also reviewed preparations for our May 27-June 2 ‘jail bharo’ programme,” party general secretary Ananth Kumar said. “The people of the country are fed up with this government and we felt the people want to throw out this government at the earliest.”
The party brass also discussed the Assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Jharkhand to be held later this year.
The broad contours of the agenda of the national executive meeting was also discussed. Two resolutions -- one on corruption and the security scenario, and the other on skyrocketing prices and the worsening economic scenario -- are likely to be passed in Goa. The leaders also discussed the visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
Hectic Day for Modi
Modi had a hectic day on Tuesday here. Among his first engagements was a forty-minute courtesy call to party patriarch Advani. Modi tweeted later: “Had a wonderful meeting with Advaniji on arrival at Delhi”.
This was followed by a visit to former party president Gadkari. He also had a twenty-minute meeting with party general secretary Ram Lal. Modi then had a luncheon with Rajnath at his residence for over an hour and a half. Later after an informal meeting with party leaders he visited former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.