New Delhi:
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is gearing up for its two-day annual National Executive meeting starting from Saturday in Delhi.
The BJP, holding its national executive meeting ahead of the Assembly polls in five states and the Lok Sabha election 2019, is likely to highlight the Modi government’s initiatives for “social justice” and “economic successes”. It may also address public concerns such as the rise in fuel prices.
BJP president Amit Shah will deliver the inaugural address on Saturday while Prime Minister Narendra Modi will give the valedictory speech on Sunday.
The issues of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), passage of key bills, including the one to restore the original provisions of the law on atrocities against minorities and another that accorded constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), in Parliament will also come up for discussion at the national executive meet, party sources said.
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The BJP National Executive will discuss all the topical issues, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters. He also said that the meet will pay tribute to former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who passed away recently.
The executive will also discuss the ongoing “Gram Swaraj” campaign for the poor, hike in the Minimum Support Price for a number of farm produce and the rise in the economic growth in the last quarter to 8.2 per cent.
Modi has often cited his government’s pro-poor programmes and push for laws to empower the SC/ST and Other Backward Classes as a part of “social justice”, a theme likely to be picked by the BJP national executive.
The BJP is likely to present itself as a party that has promoted the interests of the backward classes—a constituency it has constantly been wooing to big electoral successes since 2014.
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Party leaders said the government’s “honest” image and “successful” handling of the economy, besides the Hindutva credentials of the organisation, would keep its core constituency tethered to it in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
They added that the likely alliance of its rivals such as the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party and other regional parties would be a red herring for the upper castes.
