New Delhi: With the emotive Ram Mandir issue back in the political discourse ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the two-day BJP national convention meeting starting Friday could give some clarity on its mood on how to tread on the issue, which could affect its oft-repeated development plank.
The RSS-led Sangh Parivar has launched an aggressive campaign asking the Narendra Modi government to build the temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. There are some indications that it will be a tough challenge for the saffron party to retain power at the Centre, given that a resurgent Congress and regional satraps seen gaining the ground lost to the BJP in 2014. The party leadership has to finetune its strategy for the coming Lok Sabha polls.
The crucial meeting, where party president Amit Shah will deliver the inaugural speech on the first day and PM Narendra Modi will give the concluding remarks on Saturday, will be attended by over 4,000 party leaders from across the country.
The meeting comes in the wake of the BJP’s humiliating defeat in three key Hindi heartland states — MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan — and the party’s leadership could deliberate and reformulate its strategy on how to win the maximum number of parliamentary seats in these three states, along with UP where a possible SP-BSP tieup could severely upset the party’s poll prospects. A new slogan for the coming election and a series of reach-ut programmes for target groups could also be announced by the party leadership.
Hailed by the BJP as a major initiative of the Narendra Modi government, the 10 per cent reservation for the general category, which was passed in the just-concluded Winter Session of Parliament, could also be taken up at the meeting, with the party leaders and workers asked to highlight it and aggressively counter all allegations by the Opposition parties against it. The BJP, as alleged by the Opposition, was “forc-ed” to bring this legislation at the eleventh hour after receiving feedback that its core votebank, the upper castes, which also falls in the general category, was miffed with it over its aggressive wooing of OBCs and dalits.
Many feel this was one of the reasons for the BJP’s loss in Madhya Pradesh, where it had been ruling for 15 years.
The party leaders and workers may also be asked to take up various initiatives of the Narendra Modi government for farmers, who have been upset with the government over various issues and to counter the Opposition’s claim that jobs were declining across the country.
