Very few parallels in Indian politics to party’s growth in Bengal, says BJP president J.P. Nadda
BJP’s national executive meet, being held after a period of two years and the first after a new executive was set up by current president J P Nadda kept the upcoming Assembly polls front and centre of its agenda, with Mr Nadda setting targets to strengthen the party’s organisational reach in poll going states and giving a pep talk to leaders on how the “best was yet to come”.
Briefing reporters on Mr Nadda’s speech, Union Minister for Education, Dharmendra Pradhan said that new goals were set before the organisation by the national president in his speech. “The party will constitute booth level committees at all 10.40 lakh polling stations byDecember 25 this year and have ‘panna committees’, in reference to each page of voters’ list by April 6,” said Mr Pradhan.
The upcoming assembly polls and the effect of contemporary events on them was very much a part of Mr Nadda’s speech, with him reaching out to the Sikh community, who are in majority in poll-bound Punjab, by listing a number of measures the Modi government has taken for the community, including expediting action against 1984 riots accused, facilitating foreign grants to gurudwaras and keeping langars outside the review of the Goods and Services Tax. Sikh community members are part of many farmers organisations currently protesting against the three contentious farm laws as well.
Mr Pradhan said the executive hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effective leadership during the Covid pandemic, 100 crore vaccinations and providing free food grains to 80 crore poor people.
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Mr Nadda also lauded the party on the rate of its growth in West Bengal, where the party had lost Assembly polls recently, “if one looks at its growth in the state from the political science perspective, then there will be very few parallels of it in Indian political history.” He also said the party would stand “like a rock” with party workers who were at the receivinhg end of political violence in West Bengal, “we will fight back democratically, the party has decided,” Mr Pradhan quoted Mr Nadda as saying.
According to Mr Pradhan, Mr Nadda said that if one looks at the BJP’s vote share in the 2014 assembly elections and the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal, and compares them with the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2021 assembly polls, it shows substantial growth of the BJP in the state.
Citing the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Mr Pradhan said the executive lauded Modi for his foresight of enacting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which aims at providing citizenship to minorities in some neighbouring countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Political Resolution
Following Mr Nadda’s speech, Chief Minister of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, tabled the BJP’s resolution, touching various landmark initiatives taken by the Modi government. Sharing the details of the resolution, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the resolution specifically mentions that “we shall ensure the party’s victory in upcoming assembly elections”. BJP Tamil Nadu president Annamalai seconded the political resolution.
The resolution condemned the opposition’s “opportunistic” politics and its attempts to create fear during the pandemic. The resolution lauded the Modi government’s handling of the COVID19 pandemic, in terms of the vaccination drive but also measures like providing foodgrains to a population of 80 crores under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.
The meeting was being held in a hybrid mode with state leaders attending virtually, as well as senior leader like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. All members had to register digitally for the conference, and of the 346 members in the national executive 342 were attending.
