NEW DELHI: In the midst of the political drama unfolding in the wake of the Karnataka developments, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that there was no looking back for the BJP, which has been on an unchallenged winning spree. While Modi stressed that the Opposition was in a quandary over the BJP’s victory march, party president Amit Shah, laying the road map for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, tasked seven front organisations of the saffron party with reaching out to 22 crore households in the country as part of an outreach exercise named ‘Mahasampark Abhiyan’.
“The core philosophy of the BJP is ‘nation first and self last’. In contrast, the Opposition abides by the principle of ‘family first and nation last’. This sets the BJP apart from the Opposition parties, which has set the party on a victory march,” Modi is learnt to have said at the joint national executive of the seven organisations, which include the youth, women, OBC, SC and ST, farmers, minority and traders wings of the party.
Sounding a confident note at the conclave, which held day-long deliberations on strategies for the 2019 elections, Modi said, “There is a huge difference between 2004 and 2018. The people understand that the NDA government is working for the country. That there hasn’t been a single allegation of wrongdoing against the NDA government at the Centre is the talking point among the people.”
Shah spelt out the tasks for the front organisations—to launch a major outreach exercise in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. “All the front organisations put together should reach out to 22 crore households in the country. They should engage the people in discussions on subjects of their concern and achievements of the Modi government,” Shah said at the conclave attended by more than 600 delegates.
An upbeat Shah asserted that the 2019 verdict would be much bigger in scale than that of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. “The target before us is to ensure that the NDA government returns to power with a massive mandate in 2019 and scale up the 2014 numbers,” Shah is learnt to have told the delegates.
Sticking to the strategy of singling out the Congress, Shah said that “from 1947 to 1967, the Congress couldn’t bring changes in the fortunes of the poor” despite ruling from panchayat to Parliament.