Mumbai: The Maharashtra BJP on Monday held a review meeting with its district presidents and other senior leaders in Mumbai as a preparatory exercise for the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The meeting was chaired by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Commenting on an alliance with the Shiv Sena, the party state president Raosaheb Danve said that the Palghar election had proved BJP’s capacity to win on its own. The BJP leadership asked district presidents to start enrolling membership of the party’s every win at every booth.
The meeting was called after the party lost in the Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha bypoll. All senior cabinet ministers were present at the meeting. Mr Danve after the meeting said, “We are still of the opinion that we should ally with the Sena. We will try not to let the division of votes benefit the Congress. But the assumption that the BJP will lose without the Sena has been proved wrong. Our victory in Palghar has put a full stop to that.”
According to sources, the CM asked his party leaders not to worry about the alliance. “Whether or not there is an alliance between the Sena and BJP should not be your concern. We should start preparing for the election. People are with us and we will win the elections,” he said.
“We are in an election year now. Our strength is our cadre and the structure of the party. We will have to reach out to every last person of the society as a party. We are already in the process of establishing party structure at every booth. Now we will have to strengthen it further,” he said.
The BJP has decided to take all its cells including women, youth, and others to the booth level. Every booth will have workers from every cell. District presidents have been asked to complete this process as early as possible. According to sources, the party has also carried out an internal survey to find weak links within.
“Mr Danve has given instructions to those in charge and district presidents of these areas to improve the party work there,” said a source.
