Tuesday’s meeting assumes significance given some opposition parties are attempting to forge a grand alliance to take on the ruling BJP.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will use the day-long meeting of its chief ministers and deputy chief ministers Tuesday to fine-tune its electoral and party strategy keeping in mind the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the crucial assembly elections later this year.
The meeting will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah brainstorm with 15 chief ministers and seven deputy chief ministers to chalk out BJP’s electoral plans at a time when a handful of opposition parties are attempting to forge a grand alliance to take on the ruling BJP.
However, Tuesday’s discussion is likely to be as much a review meeting as a strategy-framing one. The last such meeting was held on 28 February, where party chief ministers were given targets pertaining to governance, policy and political issues.
According to sources in the party, the discussions will also centre around both Modi and Shah taking stock of the progress made by various states on targets that had been given to them.
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In the last meeting, Modi had urged the chief ministers to expedite the implementation of welfare schemes in their states, an indication that the BJP would project itself as a ‘pro-poor’ party ahead of the 2019 polls.
The sources say stock-taking of the execution of key schemes, particularly rural-centric ones, will also be undertaken. The party brass is likely to emphasise on outreach to Dalit and other backward communities as well.
In addition, this meeting will see the BJP confront an old question — of whether incumbency harms or benefits a party. Shah has often maintained that a party delivers when in power. The idea, therefore, would be to use this meeting to ensure delivery in BJP-ruled states to the extent that the party can reap electoral dividends.
Assembly elections
The BJP will fight polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan as an incumbent, besides, of course, the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The other state where assembly election is due by the year-end — Mizoram — is also important, given this is the only remaining northeastern state where the BJP isn’t in power.
The BJP is well aware that several states that helped it cross the 272 magic number in 2014 — such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, where it is in power — will be a tremendous challenge this time around. The party leadership will need to ensure the chief ministers of these states do all they can to minimise any losses, while the chief ministers of the other states help compensate for any damages elsewhere.
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The February meeting also saw the issue of simultaneous polls being discussed, a matter that could be raised in Tuesday’s meeting as well. If the government decides to advance assembly elections in some states to coincide with the general elections, the meeting would be a good forum to bounce the idea off.
The sources say the PM is also likely to tell the chief ministers and deputy chief ministers to be careful about their public statements so as not to harm the party’s image, and to ensure the narrative of development is pushed forward from across the country instead of from Delhi only.
The sources say the meeting will, among other issues, discuss BJP’s social media strategy, an aspect considered important by PM Modi himself.