BJP revamp? Modi meets secretaries, directs them to focus on state polls
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met BJP general secretaries and discussed organisational matters as also measures to strengthen the party ahead of assembly elections in some key states.
Modi spent over an hour with the ten party general secretaries over breakfast at his residence here seeking suggestions from them on improving governance and strengthening the party. He asked the party leaders to act as a bridge between the people and the government.
This is the first such meeting called by Modi after he took charge as Prime Minister on Monday.
Modi will meet more party workers and leaders at the BJP headquarters at Ashok Road tomorrow evening, in a bid to touch base with them and thank them for their strenuous efforts in ensuring the success of the party in Lok Sabha elections.
The meeting is believed to be an attempt to ensure that organisational strength of the BJP is not weakened in the wake of massive mandate the party received in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Senior BJP leaders said the aim is to keep the party vibrant and not to let the guard down after the party's emphatic victory.
"Inspired by motivational msg from Hon'ble PM Shri @narendramodi ji, at a meeting with party GSs, to serve party and nation with renewed vigour," party general secretary Varun Gandhi tweeted after the meeting.
Sources said Modi asked the party general secretaries to continue to act like a bridge between the government and the common people.
During the meeting it was also discussed as to what mechanism should be evolved to include suggestions from common people and party supporters to the government for effective and good governance.
The sources said the Prime Minister also asked the party leaders to prepare for assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana later this year and Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar next year.
Besides, he also asked them to be prepared for the Assembly elections in 2016 in states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
Among the party leaders who attended today's meeting were BJP president Rajnath Singh, general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal and Amit Shah, Ananth Kumar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Varun Gandhi, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Thawarchand Gehlot, J P Nadda, Tapir Gao and Murlidhar Rao.
The party will see a major revamp in the coming days, as its president Rajnath Singh, three vice presidents Jual Ornam, Uma Bharti and Smriti Irani and three general secretaries Ananth Kumar, Thawarchand Gehlot and Dharmendra Pradhan have become ministers in the government.
Besides, party treasurer Piyush Goel and two spokespersons Prakash Javadekar and Nirmala Sitharaman have joined the government.
The BJP is also likely to see a new president in the coming days with Shah, along with general secretary J P Nadda and BJP's Gujarat unit in-charge Om Prakash Mathur in the race for the post.
BJP will also see new faces in the party as it does not want to weaken the organisation ahead of crucial Assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana later this year and Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand early next year.
BJP's ideological fountainhead, the RSS, also wants that the organisation should remain vibrant and strong unlike in 1999 when the party had become debilitated as all bigwigs went into the government and the party lost touch with the grassroots.
