BHOPAL: With the assembly polls only five months away, the ruling BJP held its day-long expanded state executive meeting at the Madhya Pradesh party headquarters in Bhopal on Friday with a focus on party unity.
The meeting was attended by over 1,000 seniors party leaders, including the central party in-charge for the state P Murlidhar Rao, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP state chief VD Sharma, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, national general secretary, Tarun Chugh and Kailash Vijayvargiya, state organization general secretary of BJP Hitanand Sharma, BJP MLAs, MPs and district panchayat heads and members. The day-long meeting focused on fighting the coming polls with unity.
The call for unity assumed significance in view of the growing voices of dissent within the party in the recent past by veteran leaders over growing influence of newcomers and recent switchover by former CM Kailash Joshi’s ex-minister son Deepak Joshi to the Congress.
Addressing the concluding session of the executive in the evening, the CM (amid reports of discontent brewing among party veterans and growing disconnect between lawmakers, ministers and party workers) appealed to everyone to be large-hearted and work for the party’s victory with an even bigger majority than in the past.
“We’ve to take everyone along, which means Purano ka samman aur naye ko sthaan (due respect for the elders and enough space for newcomers). Be large-hearted, as the BJP doesn’t fight polls to make MP, MLAs or CM, it fights elections for taking the country ahead and for public welfare. That should be our only motive as we go into the polls together,” he said.
Sending the message to all senior leaders for becoming more accessible to party workers, the CM said all party workers/leaders leaving for their respective district tonight are welcome to meet me at CM House from 8 pm to 10 pm this evening, while those leaving on Saturday are welcome between 10 am and 12 noon tomorrow. “We need to give equal respect to one and all.”
Earlier, in the day, while addressing the inaugural session, state party chief VD Sharma too, alerted the party’s rank and file about Congress’s targeted move of spreading lies to divide and rule. “We need to be alert about Congress’s designs of spreading lies to divide and rule. All our party workers should become the party’s spokesperson before the people and remind them about the decade of misrule of Digvijaya Singh-led Congress government (1993-2003) and the achievements of the BJP governments thereafter.”
The party’s state general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Kavita Patidar, shared the details of a month-long statewide campaign (May 30 to June 30) to mark the completion of the Modi government’s nine years in power at the Centre.
The month-long campaign will see central leaders, including Union ministers address rallies in all Lok Sabha constituencies. Prior to these rallies, senior leaders of the party, including the MP CM and state party chief will hold talks with social media influencers and select families, particularly celebrated families, among them sportspersons and other icons.
On June 23 (the death anniversary of Syama Prasad Mukherjee), PM Modi will address 10 lakh booth-level workers of the party through video-conferencing. Two days later (the anniversary of the imposition of the Emergency), special meetings will be held in various assembly segments.