New BJP Chief Reviews Poll Plan for 5 State Polls

New Delhi: A day after taking charge of the BJP, its new national president Nitin Nabin on Wednesday held his first organisational meeting with office-bearers and state-level leaders to review activities, including preparations for the coming Assembly elections in five states/UTs, including West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and the Union territory of Puducherry. Nabin also reviewed preparedness regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tamil Nadu and Kerala and his public rallies scheduled on January 23 with the respective state leaders. He held separate meetings with leaders of poll-going states to review election preparedness.

Nabin also congratulated leaders for the party’s performance in recent local body and municipal polls, including in Maharashtra.

At the day-long meeting, Nabin asked party functionaries to further strengthen the organisation at the grassroots level and said responsibilities should be assigned to everyone by the state leadership. He also instructed them to counter the Congress’ “negative campaign” against the VB-G Ram G Bill by intensifying efforts to apprise the people about the benefits of the new rural employment guarantee scheme, sources said. The BJP is running a nationwide campaign to counter the Congress’ attempts to build a narrative against the scheme that replaced the UPA-initiated MGNREGA.

The meeting was attended by state presidents, organisational secretaries, state in-charges and also former presidents from the states where the state unit chief was appointed recently, like Uttar Pradesh. Among organisational issues, he also discussed the issue of office-bearers in states which are yet to announce their new team. The new president also stressed on strengthening the party’s presence at the booth level and reaching out to more and more people with the Central government and BJP-led governments’ achievements. He also asked for strict monitoring of all activities from the state to the booth level.

At the meeting, which discussed several issues, former BJP president J.P. Nadda was also present along with national general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santhosh.