The Bharatiya Janata Party’s national executive committee will meet here on March 1 and the national council on the next two days.
Besides endorsing the election of Rajnath Singh as party president, the national council will deliberate on the current political developments and the forthcoming Assembly elections wherein the party has high stakes.
The formal agenda apart, all eyes at both meetings will be on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who in recent weeks has left little doubt about his ambition to play an important role at the national level ahead of the 2014 general elections.
For his first public appearance here on Wednesday, after his victory in the Gujarat Assembly election, Mr. Modi chose the platform provided by a Delhi University college to market himself as a leader who could change the face of India. Speaking skilfully, he claimed to have transformed Gujarat in the past 10 years with a “clear vision and planning” and said the model he had perfected could be replicated nationwide. He avoided making any reference to political rivals or parties, lamenting instead how “vote-bank politics” has wrecked the country.
Senior BJP leaders see this meeting as part of his strategy to move to Delhi and are reconciled to the prospect of Mr. Modi playing a larger role in the coming months.
