Bengaluru, April 1
Having emerged as the
world's largest political party, the leadership of India's ruling
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will meet here for two days from Friday to
brainstorm how to rapidly expand its influence beyond its record 11
states where it is now in power.
With a confident Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and an assertive party president Amit Shah in attendance,
the meeting of the national executive will draw more than 110 delegates
from all over the country.
A host of issues will come up for
discussion, party leaders say, with the controversial land bill -- which
has united a disparate opposition -- expected to be taken up in a big
way.
Party leaders say the BJP will be giving a clear message to
its leaders and units to reach out to farmers to explain the bill's
benefits and trash the propaganda of the opposition.
It will be
the first national executive meeting since Modi became the prime
minister in May 2014. A national council meeting was held in August.
It will also be the first meeting since Shah, a Modi confidant, took over the presidency last year.
"It
is an important session because we have 10 months of good work (of the
Modi government)," BJP's national secretary Sidharth Nath Singh told
IANS.
He said the meeting would chalk out ways to expose the
"misinformation" and "propaganda" of opposition parties, which say that
the land bill would take away land from farmers and pass them on to
industrial houses.
A BJP leader who did not want to be named added that the land bill will be the "big focus" of the meeting.
The
BJP is aware of the dangers if the opposition is able to sustain its
campaign against the bill, which got passed in the Lok Sabha with nine
official amendments but needs to get past the opposition-held Rajya
Sabha.
BJP leaders will also deliberate on the preparations for assembly polls in Bihar later this year.
The BJP is determined to win the state after the shocking rout in Delhi.
"The
BJP won all Lok Sabha seats in Delhi but the situation changed in the
assembly election. We need to take calculated steps in Bihar, specially
since all opposition parties have joined hands," said a party leader
from Bihar who did not want to be identified.
The ruling Janata Dal-United and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have come together against the BJP in Bihar.
BJP spokesperson M.J. Akbar said Modi and Shah will outline the party's priorities in Bengaluru.
"The
prime minister and party president will set the course for the party so
that it is able to play its legitimate role in a resurgent India,"
Akbar told IANS.
"The Modi government has already created the foundation and framework of the regeneration," Akbar added.
The
BJP now rules on its own -- or in alliance -- the states of
Maharashtra, Goa, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Jharkhand,
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.
Since
sweeping the Lok Sabha last year, the BJP has also been on a winning
spree in state after state. The only reversal came in Delhi where it was
routed by the Aam Aadmi Party in February.
The BJP meeting will
review its membership drive. The BJP says it now has about 8.8 crore
members, making it the biggest political party in the world.
Akbar
said the membership drive was "an extraordinary achievement" of the
party president and that the BJP had gained in strength even in states
where it has been traditionally weak.
The party will adopt a
political and an economic resolution at the national executive meet. The
latter would focus on Modi's 'Make in India' campaign, a key focus area
for the government.
