The BJP is gearing up for its booth committee members’ meeting here on May 25 as part of its efforts to become stronger at the grass-roots level for the 2019 elections.
Party national president Amit Shah is going to throw light on what the party has done for Andhra Pradesh in the last three years and its future plans.
Union Ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu and Nirmala Sitharaman are among the national leaders invited for the conclave.
Mr. Shah’s visit is coming at a time when YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy lent credence to the theory that the intention behind his support to the NDA’s presidential candidate is to stitch a possible alliance with it for the general elections.
The BJP has claimed to have formed over 20,000 booth committees to carve an identity of its own at the village level in order to win over the electoral support while maintaining cordial relations with its ally, the Telugu Desam Party.
The underlying objective of the exercise is to shed the party’s image as a national party, which is dependent on the regional players.
Asked whether the BJP is moving ahead aggressively, party State president and Visakhapatnam MP K. Haribabu said: “It is essential to set goals to the cadres, whether the BJP is a member of the ruling alliance or not. Mr. Shah will tell them what they should do to consolidate the party’s support at the the lowest level. Strengthening the party does not mean any other thing, to call it aggressive is not correct.”
Mr. Haribabu said Union Minister for Health J.P. Nadda, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav and Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh were invited for the meeting.
They will share their views on ways to transform the party into an organisation that can put up its own fight during the elections.
Mr. Shah is arriving in Vijayawada on May 25 afternoon from Hyderabad, where he will be holding parleys with the party’s rank and file the previous two days.
