The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be attending the BRICS political parties plus dialogue in South Africa convened by the African National Congress (ANC) later this year, BJP national president J.P. Nadda announced in New Delhi on July 5. Mr. Nadda also announced that the BJP will be hosting a delegation of the ruling Awami League of Bangladesh and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) in the near future.
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Both announcements were made at a meeting of the heads of missions to India from Bangladesh, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mozambique, South Korea, Suriname, Sweden, and the acting head of mission of Tanzania, at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi under the party’s “Know the BJP” programme of interactions.
Sources in the BJP said that participation in the BRICS plus political parties dialogue was a significant development for the party as it was being hosted by the African National Congress, which has old connections and fraternal relations with the Indian National Congress (INC), and had been part of delegations from political parties of other countries to be invited to observe the INC plenary in Hyderabad in 2006. “Our attempt is to enter into a commensurate relationship with the ANC,” the source said.
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The Awami League had also sent congratulatory letters to then Congress president Rahul Gandhi during the 2018 Congress plenary held under the latter’s presidentship of the party.
As far as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) is concerned, the current Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, the leader of that party, had visited the BJP headquarters to meet with Mr. Nadda in July 2022, months before he assumed the premiership of Nepal.
Under Mr. Nadda’s presidentship, the BJP has been active in interacting with foreign political parties, delegations and leadership of various countries, in an effort to make up for lost time in the past, when this kind of outreach was not so abundant, according to the party.