The Bharatiya Janata Party’s national council meeting is to be held in Indore between February 18 and 19 where Nitin Gadkari’s position as party president would be ratified. A one-day National Executive Committee meeting will precede the National Council meeting.
The formal election process of Mr. Gadkari, who took charge on December 24, 2009, is expected to be completed by February 9.
This was officially announced here on Thursday after a meeting of the party’s central office-bearers called by Mr. Gadkari. Senior leaders L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, among others, were also present.
Mr. Gadkari’s election will come at the very end of the party’s organisation election process that started three to four months ago. Nominations in his favour are expected to be submitted by several State units after which he would be declared elected unanimously.
This has been the practice in the party ever since its inception in 1980. There has not been a single contested election for the post of national president. A name is finalised through a consultation process involving the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and senior BJP leaders and then the formality of his being elected is gone through.
Major issue
The meeting on Thursday decided to make rise in price of food a major issue by involving its youth and women’s wings. A major rally is being planned for March when Parliament would be holding its budget session. To felicitate organising this rally and do homework on price rise a committee was set up by Mr. Gadkari under the chairmanship of general secretary Ananth Kumar with Gopinath Munde, M.A. Naqvi and Vijay Goel as members.
A resolution strongly condemning the terrorist attack at Lal Chowk, Srinagar, was adopted at the meeting. Describing it as an onslaught on India’s sovereignty, the BJP blamed the government too for “lowering its guard.” It criticised the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir government for “romancing with ill-conceived ideas like autonomy and dilution of national sovereignty.”
