Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Dispelling lingering doubts in the minds of the party cadre over the impact of Opposition unity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday sought to project the image of a confident BJP that would easily retain power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while party chief Amit Shah claimed the BJP is destined to rule for as many as 50 years.
Shah’s optimism was based on the Gujarat experience, where the party has been in power since 1998 despite the state once being a Congress bastion.
The national executive began on Saturday with the slogan of “Ajey (invincible) BJP”, but concluded with Modi amending it to “Ajey Bharat, Atal (firm) BJP”, lest it be seen as arrogant.
Singling out the Congress, which is largely being seen as the emerging core of mahagathbandhan (grand Opposition coalition), Modi sought to question the credibility of its leadership. “No one is ready to accept the leadership of the Congress, and some smaller parties see it as a burden. There’s a section within the Congress that also doesn’t accept the leadership of the party,” Modi rubbed in, adding there is no clarity on the leadership and the policies of the proposed grand coalition.
Asking the party workers to expose the falsehood of the constituents of the mahagathbandhan, Modi in his valedictory address asserted that the success of his government is demonstrated by the fact that parties that could not see eye to eye in the past are now embracing each other.
Though a few delegates could not avoid recalling the “India Shining” campaign of the NDA that bombed in the 2004 elections, Modi portrayed a rosy picture on governance, saying not less than five crore people in extreme poverty had been lifted out of the bottom of the economic pyramid.
Delegates were shown a short documentary on Modi, besides a demonstration of the Namo App, which has of late become the principal tool of the Prime Minister’s communication outreach. Clear that the JP would be banking on its organisational might to counter the spectre of Mahagathbandhan, Modi asked the party to beef up polling booths, saying that they were the bases on which the party citadel had been built. Modi also asked the party workers to go to the people with the narrative of 48 years (of Congress rule) versus 48 months (of NDA). He said the party would have a strategy to counter the “falsehoods of the Mahagathbandhan”. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the prime minister would, in the run-up to the elections, visit 245 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Talking points
Shah plans to reach out to 21 crore families Amit Shah says BJP has a corpus of 9 crore workers. In other words, it is in touch with 36-40 crore people. “We need to reach out to 21 crore families across the country, which means we will eventually reach out to more than 110 crore people in the country...in a way we will almost cover the entire population of India,” says Shah.
Opposition daydreaming
“The BJP will return to power in 2019 with more seats and votes. The Opposition is daydreaming. It has neither a leader nor policy nor strategy. It only has a negative agenda of stopping Modi and people do not like negative politics,” BJP political resolution said
Modi campaign to touch 245 LS seats
Narendra Modi has covered as many as 300 Lok Sabha constituencies since 2014 when he became PM. In the run-up to the 2019 general elections, he intends to visit 245 Lok Sabha constituencies
