The first meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party office-bearers and State unit chiefs here under the leadership of party president Rajnath Singh took stock of the current political situation and discussed the preparedness of the organisation at various levels in the run up to 2014 general elections.
Aside from having a symbolic significance, the meeting was a routine affair. Apart from the party’s dismal prospects in the May 5 Karnataka Assembly elections, the question of who would lead it in the Lok Sabha polls is far from settled.
Neither senior party leader L.K. Advani nor Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will be present at the BJP rally scheduled to kick-off its assembly election campaign on Monday. It will be addressed by Mr. Singh and party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Singh told party leaders not to speak out of turn publicly on issues which spark off “unnecessary controversies”.
Mr. Modi, whom Mr. Singh has brought back into the party’s parliamentary board after six years, told the leaders that the party should capitalise on the “anger against the Congress” by drawing comparisons between Congress and BJP-ruled States. He also shared the “success” formula that brought the party back to power in Gujarat for the third time in a row.
The Gujarat Chief Minister, who was present at the conference of Chief Justices and Chief Ministers earlier in the day, is scheduled to speak at the FICCI forum on Monday.
At the meeting the BJP president told off party leaders who were openly announcing their preferences for the Prime Ministerial candidate and asserted that only those “authorised” should speak to the media to avoid “unnecessary” controversies.
Delhi party president Vijay Goel had said on Saturday that the next government at the Centre will be formed “under the leadership” of senior party leader L.K. Advani only to later retract the statement, claiming that he had meant to say “under the guidance” of Mr. Advani.
Mr. Advani said “good governance, prudent politics and ideal image” should be the party’s slogan and identified corruption, inflation and black money as the three campaign planks to take on the Congress.
Mr. Jaitley described the UPA as a crumbling alliance.
