The Narendra Modi government may be getting ready to celebrate its third anniversary, but BJP president Amit Shah is already preparing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, with a whirlwind tour of all State capitals across the country over 95 days starting from April 27.
Mr. Shah, in his presidential address to the party executive at Bhubaneswar recently, declared that the golden age of the BJP would dawn only after the party installed a Chief Minister in every State of the country.
Three categories
A senior general secretary of the BJP involved with the tour preparations told The Hindu that the party had divided States into three categories — those that have BJP governments, those that have NDA governments and those where Opposition parties were in power.
“We have a further category of very big, big and small States. This will decide the number of nights Mr. Shah will spend in each State. In a very big State, the trip may extend to two or three days, while in small States, it may be for just a day. But the idea is that he will spend a night in every State and speak to State unit leaders and karyakartas , to give the feeling that we are involved in every level of organisation,” he said.
He will be in Jammu (not the Kashmir Valley) on April 29 and 30.
To meet workers
“Programmes will involve closed-door meetings, booth level karyakarta meetings and interactions with the media and intellectuals of various areas. In the meeting between Mr. Shah and office-bearers, at least a party member or two who are not office-bearers but understand the local equations will be added to the mix to get a good feel of the ground,” the general secretary added.
Tripura rally
The only public meeting that Mr. Shah will address would be in poll-bound Tripura. “That State is going to the polls; so probably there will be a public meeting there. Otherwise, the entire focus of the party president’s tour will be the 2019 elections, and our preparedness for it,” he said.
