Ahead of the BJP's national executive meeting here, a meeting of the party's national office-bearers has begun on Sunday with party president Amit Shah chairing it.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived later in the day for the executive meeting, Shah, veteran leader Murli Manohar Joshi, party general secretaries Ram Madhav, Ram Lal and Bhupendra Yadav, national secretaries Siddharth Nath Singh and Shrikant Sharma and party spokesman Sambit Patra have already reached the city.
The national executive meet will set the agenda for the assembly elections in the state which are less than a year away. The two-day conclave will conclude tomorrow and will be followed by a rally to be addressed by Modi.
Several senior members of the Union cabinet and Chief Ministers of all the states ruled by the BJP are also likely to take part in the national executive meeting. "I would have called it as sounding the poll bugle for UP assembly polls but for PM Modi's rally in Saharanpur last month," said BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh yesterday. Posters have come up across the city displaying the header 'Mission 265 Plus' a term coined by Shah who has repeatedly exhorted workers to aim at achieving a thumping majority for the party in the 403-strong UP assembly.
BJP has brought several new faces to its national executive, the highlight being some former Congress leaders, including former Odisha Chief Minister and tribal leader Giridhar Gamang and saffron party leader KV Singh Deo, also from that state. Deo is a former state party chief. Himanta Biswa Sarma, who defected from Congress to BJP and played a key role in its big Assam win, and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, a new entrant to the saffron party, have also been inducted into the national executive.