BJP president J.P. Nadda on Saturday emphasised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership for the party’s rise since he took office, urging party men to ensure the Modi government scored a hat trick of victories in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, “with record-breaking numbers”.
He was delivering the inaugural address at the BJP’s national council meeting in New Delhi over the weekend, with nearly 12,000 delegates present from all over the country. Mr. Nadda’s speech, which was interspersed with delegates chanting “Modi hai toh mumkin hai” (Modi makes everything possible) and “Jai Shri Ram”, and cheers over the women’s reservation Bill, not only talked of the government’s work in terms of development and welfare, but also the growth the party has seen since Mr. Modi’s ascent on the national political stage in 2013.
Coining a new acronym, ‘GYAN’ (knowledge), which he broke down as “Gareeb” (poor), “Yuva” (youth), “Annadata” (farmer) and “Nari” (women), Mr. Nadda said that Mr. Modi had broken the “Opposition-built silos of vote bank politics” and worked for these sections regardless of caste and community.
In his speech, Mr. Nadda noted that the BJP had ruled in only around five States before Mr. Modi’s rise in 2014 and the party was is in power in 12 States now, with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in power in 17 States.
The BJP retained power for a second term in Uttar Pradesh with a big win in 2022, and broke the trend of alternating wins in Uttarakhand, and had recently won Assembly elections in three States — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan — when many thought it improbable, he said.
In West Bengal, the BJP had risen from 10% votes and three seats to 38.5% and 77 seats in the 2021 Assembly election, Mr. Nadda said, asserting that the party would come to power in the State next time.
For the first time, the party had stormed to power in many northeastern States, including Assam, and had doubled its vote share in Telangana, he said. Rubbishing the contention that the party’s presence had been limited in south India, Mr. Nadda said that the BJP had 29 Lok Sabha MPs and eight Rajya Sabha MPs from the region as against the corresponding numbers of 28 and seven, respectively, of the Congress party.
“Our party is the only one that still stands on what we stood for in 1951, and we stand by what we believe in, we are an ideologically driven party,” Mr. Nadda said, with references to the abolition of the Article 370 according special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
Mr. Nadda spoke at length about the Bharat Ratnas being given by the Modi government to “people who have served our country”, with the mention of former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani’s name garnering applause.
He spoke in glowing terms of Mr. Modi’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the conduct of the G-20 summit at the Bharat Mandapam, where the party’s national council meeting is also being held, adding, “Even though some elements were trying to obstruct the construction of the Bharat Mandapam — there was a Pragati Maidan here whereas there was no pragati (progress), and construction of a 1971 vintage..”
