New Delhi: Upbeat over its emphatic win in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
is all set to prepare a roadmap for ousting the Congress in the elections to Delhi,
Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Rajasthan Assemblies next year, at its crucial
national executive meeting beginning here on December 23.
The main agenda of the two-day meet, to be attended by the party's top brass, will
be to take stock of the party's 'spectacular victory' in Gujarat and byelections in
some states and finalise the strategy for the Assembly polls next year, highly
placed party sources said.
With the compulsions of leading a coalition on its head, BJP would not adopt
aggressive 'hindutva' as is being widely speculated, but is likely to reiterate that
the party was least apologetic about its core ideology and issues including
construction of Ram temple, uniform civil code and Article
370, they said.
"The mood in the party is certainly upbeat. The unprecedented results in Gujarat
including the Mehsana Lok Sabha byelection and simultaneous victory in three
Assembly seats in Rajasthan and Godda Parliamentary seat in Jharkhand, has infused a
new dose of urgency and confidence across the ranks and file of the party
machinery," a senior leader said.
Senior party leaders also attribute the recent success to the 'generational' change
in the party's leadership including Venkaiah Naidu taking charge as party president
in July.
"Venkaiah had inherited a flagging organisation, that seemed incapable of stopping
the Congress wave that was sweeping BJP out of power across the country. The
National Democratic alliance (NDA) allies too were not insensitive to BJP's failing
fortunes with Mamta Banerjee jumping the boat and Chandrababu Naidu even asking for
change of leadership in Gujarat," a senior party functionary said.
In a significant shift, the party entrusted the task of redrafting the party's
strategy, policies and programmes to a young team comprising among others Naidu,
Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Sanjay Joshi - a decision which
party elders says "is now bearing fruit".
At the state level also, the party assigned the responsibility to young leaders,
such as, Vasundhara Raje, "Who carried the day in the just concluded by-elections,"
the sources said.
The party also closed ranks with the 'sangh parivar' at a meeting between Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) top
brass.
"While no proximity is planned with the 'hindutva' outfits in the wake of Gujarat
polls, differences will not be aired publicly to the extent possible," party
sources added.
According to a senior minister, post Gujarat, the situation has dramatically
altered.
"Overnight the party is upbeat and everyone can sense the change in mood. Further
changes in terms of strategy and focus are now in the offing," he said.
And for once, even skeptics within the party are no more dismissing Naidu's target
of 300 Parliamentary seats in the next general elections as a 'pipedream'.
PTI
