The BJP will hold its next national executive meet in Bhubaneswar between April 15 and 16, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced on Saturday.
The venue was arrived at after considering Shimla and Lucknow, the capitals of States where polls are due or where the party has posted victory.
What swung matters in favour of Bhubaneswar was the success of the BJP in the local body polls concluded last month in Odisha. The BJP came in a strong second in most local bodies, pipping the Biju Janata Dal’s traditional challenger, the Congress.
Although the ruling BJD managed to remain ahead of others in the rural polls, the BJP won 297 as against 36 seats in 2012 and the Congress finished third with 60 seats as against 128 in the last elections. The meeting will be held to thank the people of Odisha for their unprecedented support to the BJP in the panchayat
Fourth time
This is the fourth time the BJP will hold an executive meet in Odisha, after meetings in 1982, 1992, and 1997. Another, deeper strategic reason is the fact that BJP president Amit Shah last year had unveiled a plan for expanding the reach of the BJP in non-traditional areas.
“About 113 seats had been identified in States like Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, where the BJP does not have a big presence but did well in the 2014 General Elections. State unit chiefs and national prabharis [in charge] of these States were then told to mobilise workers in those areas,” said a senior office-bearer of the BJP.
In the national executive held in January this year, full-time workers have been assigned for these areas.
“In 2019, we need to improve our performance in areas where we came a decent second or even got more than the votes required to retain a deposit,” said the general secretary in charge of one of these States. After the RSS, in its annual pratinidhi sabha, launched a frontal attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as fuelling “Jihadi” groups, it seems the party is determined to follow the Sangh’s “Look East policy.”
BJP Odisha unit president Basanta Panda said the national executive would encourage party workers to prepare themselves for the 2019 general elections.
(With Prafulla Das in Bhubaneswar)
