The BJP on Wednesday conducted discussions at different levels to select Chief Ministers for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, even as an emotional Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled the collective struggles of the BJP workers led to the party now holding power in as many as 19 States.
“We are now ruling 19 States,” Modi told the meeting.
Addressing a meeting of the BJP parliamentary party here, he reflected on the party’s political journey since 1984, when it was reduced to two seats in Parliament.
Modi and BJP President Amit Shah were warmly welcomed by the parliamentary party, which met for the first time after the twin victories in Assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
The PM also met MPs from Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh separately amid speculations about different names for the top job in the two States.
In HP, the situation is peculiar because while the BJP has won an overwhelming majority in the 68-member Assembly, its CM candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal lost from Sujanpur. The party has sent Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Singh Tomar to Shimla to hold discussions with the newly-elected MLAs. The names of Union Health Minister JP Nadda and local leader Jairam Thakur are doing the rounds for the CM’s post in the hill State.
To conduct a similar exercise in Gujarat, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and BJP leader Saroj Pandey will be going to Ahmedabad later this week.
Besides Vijay Rupani, the names of Mansukh Mandavia and Purushottam Rupala are being discussed as possible choices for Gujarat CM.
Youth pushMeanwhile, in the parliamentary party meeting, Modi called for strengthening the BJP at its roots for a win in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and also pitched for promoting young faces inside and outside the party.
He pushed for promoting the new generation for a “New India”, a vision for 2022 promoted by the government. He also urged party leaders not to be affected by the Opposition’s “disinformation” campaign against the BJP, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters later.
Booth-level work, which is the root of a poll campaign, is the mother of an election victory, Kumar quoted Modi as saying.
“He called for strengthening the party at its roots across the country,” he said.
Party sources said Modi turned emotional a few times as he recalled how the party organisation was built in Gujarat and young leaders were groomed by their seniors, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. With the Congress claiming a “moral victory” for scoring its highest tally and pushing the BJP to its lowest score in the last many elections, Modi asserted that it was a big win for his party in his home State. No party in power at the Centre had done this well in elections across the country in over three years of tenure as the BJP had done, he said, referring to its winning streak in Assembly elections.
Praise from VajpayeeModi fondly recalled how Vajpayee congratulated him in person when the party fared well in a Lok Sabha election from Gujarat, noting that he, then a relatively new entrant to the BJP from the RSS and a general secretary in charge of the State, was not widely known in the party, sources said.
Seeking the promotion of young leaders at every level in the organisation, Modi referred to his association with party President Shah, who was present at today’s meeting, and spoke about how he groomed Shah, 14 years younger than himself, party sources said.
“Modi called for strengthening the party at its roots across the country. He said the work at the booth level is most important, beside people’s blessings to the party, for creating a wave in its favour,” Kumar told reporters after the meeting.
In his address, Shah attacked the Congress over its claim of a moral victory in the Gujarat polls, saying it was a “laughable exercise” for the Opposition party to see victory in defeat.