Emotional PM Modi hails wins, warns against complacency

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday cautioned BJP leaders against getting complacent ahead of the coming crucial electoral battles in the states, and in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, and asked them to strengthen the organisational “roots” (booth level). Mr Modi, who was attending the first BJP parliamentary party meeting after the recent electoral victories, also got emotional, thrice, as he recalled how the party had gained electorally as well as organisationally since its inception and how party stalwarts, including patriarch and former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, had groomed young leaders, including himself. The Prime Minister was given a standing ovation by party leaders for the recent electoral victories in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. In his speech, Mr Modi also pitched for promoting young faces inside and outside the party for a “New India”, a vision for 2022 promoted by his government. Later, party MPs from Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat also met the PM separately to congratulate and felicitate him.

Asking BJP leaders not to get affected by the Opposition’s “disinformation” campaign against the party, the PM said that booth-level work, is the root of the a poll campaigns, the road to election victory. “He called for strengthening the party at its roots across the country,” parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar quoted the PM as saying at the meeting.

Mr Modi, sources said, turned emotional as he recalled how the party organisation was built in Gujarat and young leaders were groomed by their seniors, including Mr Vajpayee. He also fondly recalled how Mr Vajpayee congratulated him in person when the party fared well in 1999 Lok Sabha election from Gujarat, noting that he, then a relatively new entrant to the BJP from the RSS and a general secretary in charge of the state, was not widely known in the party, sources said. It was learnt that he said the Congress under Indira Gandhi had got to rule 18 states but the BJP and its allies were already in power in 19 states now, and the party had achieved such a political feat in its three-and-a-half-year rule at the Centre. He got emotional when he recalled the work of Makrand Desai, Arvind Maniyar and Vasantrao Gajendragadkar, among others, in building the party, known as the Jan Sangh in its earlier avatar, in Gujarat, sources said.

Despite the Congress claiming a “moral victory” after scoring its highest tally in Gujarat and pushing the BJP to its lowest score in the last many elections, Mr Modi asserted it was a big win for his party in his home state.

Seeking the promotion of young leaders at every level in the organisation, Mr Modi referred to his association with party chief Amit Shah and spoke about how he groomed Mr Shah, 14 years younger to the PM.

In his address, Mr Shah attacked the Congress over its claim of a moral victory in Gujarat, saying it was a “laughable exercise” for the Opposition party to see a victory in defeat.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s legislature party meeting in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat to choose its leader is likely to take place on Thursday and Friday respectively. While senior leader and five-time MLA Jairam Thakur is said to be leading the race for Himachal CM, the names of Union minister J.P. Nadda and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur are also doing the rounds. Three MLAs have offered their seat to P.K. Dhumal, who was the party’s CM candidate but lost his seat. In Gujarat, the BJP leadership is likely to continue with incumbent CM Vijay Rupani, with Nitin Patel as his deputy.