HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to contest from the Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu in the next elections if the BJP’s central leadership takes a decision to this effect.
During the ‘Regional Consultative Meeting’ of BJP presidents from 11 States and national general secretaries which was held at the party office in Nampally on Sunday, party president JP Nadda informed the delegates that with a view to solidly establishing itself in the south, the party decided to field Modi from one of the south Indian States.
When he sought the opinion of the delegates, it was learnt that a majority of them suggested that Narendra Modi contest from Ramanathapuram. Presently, K Navaskani of the Indian Muslim League is the MP from the constituency.
The suggestion of the party leaders is significant and challenging as well, as Modi presently represents the Hindu-dominated Varanasi, and if he can defeat Navaskani from Ramanathapuram, which has a significant Muslim vote, that would send out a message to the entire southern States that if Hindus organise as a vote-bank in support of the BJP, anything is possible.
Nadda has also set the bar higher for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as he informed the delegates that the BJP should exceed 50 seats from the south Indian States. This goal is being seen as a strategy to balance the probability of the party losing in some of the northern States due to the anti-incumbency factor.
The success of Modi’s public meeting in Warangal was appreciated during the meeting, and Nadda also said that the prime minister will address at least two more meetings in Telangana before the coming Assembly elections in the State.BJP MLA and the party’s election management committee chairman Eatala Rajender briefly entered the meeting hall to meet Nadda, who was known to have asked him to convince the leaders planning to join Congress, to stay with BJP.
Nadda called on the BJP leaders to end groupism in their respective States and work unitedly to bring the BJP back to power.As per sources, while Nadda was on his way to offer prayers at the Ujjaini Mahankali temple in Secunderabad, he received a phone call from former MP Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy. It is believed that Rajgopal is keen on moving to urban areas to contest, and that he preferred to contest from LB Nagar Assembly constituency, or Malkajgiri Lok Sabha segment.
The Sunday’s high-level meeting was held in four sessions, out of which, the progress of BJP’s ‘Maha Jan Sampark Abhiyan’ was taken by the party’s leadership. All the eleven States submitted their report, which included information about the number of press conferences, social media influencers meetings, vyapari sammelans, vikas tirth yatras, intellectuals meetings, emergency documentary shows, public meetings, beneficiaries’ meetings, social workers meetings, ghar ghar sampark abhiyan, Modi’s Mann Ki Baat and other programmes which were planned as part of the campaign.
There were around 34 delegates who attended the meeting which included BJP national general secretaries, BJP State presidents from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Goa.