Bhubaneswar: BJP president Amit Shah urged party leaders on Saturday to work hard and “make the lotus bloom” across India — from panchayats to Parliament.
In his inaugural address at the party’s two-day national executive meeting at Bhubaneswar, he set the state elections in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat (both 2017) and Karnataka (2018) as immediate goals.
He also urged the party to defeat Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government in 2019 when state elections will be held in Odisha.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who reached Bhubaneswar on Saturday and led a roadshow, mingling with crowds at several places breaking security protocol — will address party leaders in his Sunday’s speech. Mr Shah, however, cautioned party leaders against any complacency over recent electoral successes in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Manipur and Goa.
In an apparent message to Odisha Chief Minister, the party president cited the BJP’s victory in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh and said the mandate “proved the regional parties were no longer invincible” and could be “defeated if their failures in governance were exposed.”
The BJP’s stunning performance in the recently-concluded local body elections has rattled Odisha’s ruling dispensation, which has been ruling the state for the last 17 years.
