At national exec meet, Shah lays out roadmap for political expansion, says golden era yet to come
With the scent from recent electoral wins still fresh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah's message at the party's national executive meet was clear: The hunt is on.
Addressing the meet, which got underway in Bhubaneswar on Saturday, Shah exhorted his colleagues not to rest until the party captures the political space in every state, at every level, from the humble panchayat to the exalted corridors of Parliament.
The mood at the meeting, the party's first since it swept Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, was palpably upbeat, even more so as Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked in to a standing ovation from the more than 300 members who had gathered at the Janata Maidan.
Shah, however, told the party that it still had a long way to go, dismissing talk that the BJP had reached the zenith of its achievements in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and in UP in 2017.
"The BJP is yet to reach its peak.... We have to resolve that we have to be there from panchayat to Parliament. In every state we have to ensure BJP is in power," Law and Information Technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted Shah as saying.
While asking the party to resolve to make the BJP a pan-Indian entity, Shah said its "golden era" would not be to just showcase the party but to ensure the country's success and see that India reaches a high position in the comity of nations. "Once we achieve that we can say BJP's golden era has come," he said.
Though the BJP, which has 13 chief ministers, has taken 60 per cent of the political space, it needs to move forward in several places like the southern and eastern states, Shah said. He also revealed that the party has drafted a plan that targets 115 seats it has never won in the past, spread across a wide swathe of states that includes Odisha, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and northeast.
"We cannot be complacent," Shah told the party.
Shah has also set himself a target of completing by September a 95-day tour across the country to talk to booth workers. The party's working committee members, including ministers, will devote 15 days – three days each in five states – as part of this exercise.
Devoting 12-14 minutes of the speech to achievements of the Modi government, Shah underlined the pro-poor approach the Centre has adopted.
Shah recalled that near the Sangam in Allahabad, the party had resolved to win UP and four other states, and that in Lord Jagannath's land, it should pledge to emerge victorious in the election-bound states of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Kerala.
He said the party's win in UP had dispelled the criticism that the BJP could defeat the Congress but not regional parties. "It was a firm rejection of casteism, family in electoral politics, and politics of appeasement," he said.
Further, he said the three-fourth majority in UP had changed the definition of what constituted a "big win".
The BJP President also condemned the violence against RSS and BJP workers in Kerala, Tripura, and West Bengal, saying the party would resist it peacefully and expand in these states.
Speaking as he was in Odisha, Shah also castigated the four-term Naveen Patnaik government, saying it has failed on all fronts. Asking party workers in the state to stay focused, he said the next government in the state would be a BJP one.
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