BHUBANESWAR: Strengthened, by its impressive performance during the panchayat elections, the BJP’s national executive began this afternoon in the Odisha capital Bhubaneswar.
On Friday, BJP president Amit Shah received a rousing welcome that included two garlands made of lotuses, the party symbol.
Soon after landing at the airport, PM Modi drove straight to the venue. On this occasion, he also got off the vehicle to walk up to them.
The Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh was quoted saying that;
“I am witnessing so much vigour in BJP’s workers of Odisha. This meeting can be proven as a milestone in the upcoming election of Odisha,”
The two-day national executive attended by the BJP’s 350 top leaders will have a string of speeches over the next two days and will conclude tomorrow.
- The BJP’s two-day national executive meeting is currently underway at Bhubaneswar. About 350 people, which includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party chief Amit Shah, union ministers, Chief Ministers of 13 BJP-ruled states including UP CM Yogi Adityanath, are attending the meeting.
- BJP is planning receptions for PM Modi at several places on his way from Bhubaneswar airport to the Raj Bhawan, where he will stay tonight.
- Veteran leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi will also be a part of the executive at the Odisha capital’s Janata Maidan.
- This is the party’s biggest, and loudest push to edge out its one-time ally, the Biju Janata Dal, and capture power in the state which goes to polls in 2019, along with the Lok Sabha General elections.
- The leaders will discuss the BJP’s strategy to increase the party’s political footprint ahead of the 2019 general elections while eyeing the 2019 Odisha state elections.
- It will be an opportunity to exchange ideas on the party’s strategy for the 2019 General Elections.
- It will also be an opportunity to showcase the Chief Ministers of 13 BJP-ruled states, particularly the saffron-robed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
- Odisha, where the BJP had won just one of the 21 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is at the heart of the BJP’s “Look-East” policy.
- The first sign that this was within the realm of possibility came in February when the party won 300 seats in the panchayat elections as against the ruling BJD’s 400 seats.
- The main opposition party, the Congress was left with less than 100 seats.
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