Karnataka and MP units want BJP national executive

Keeping in mind the upcoming elections in their respective states, the Karnataka as well as the Madhya Pradesh units of the Bharatiya Janata Party have asked the party to hold the upcoming national executive elections in their respective states. The national executive of the party is scheduled to be held in January next year; Assembly polls in Karnataka are scheduled for May next year, while Madhya Pradesh is headed to the polls in November.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is scheduled to come to Delhi to meet party J P Nadda this week, and is likely to discuss with him about the state unit’s inclination to hold the national executive in Karnataka. Karnataka leaders are keen on holding it in Bengaluru, Mysuru or at Hubballi-Dharwad.

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The last national executive of the party, held in July last year in Hyderabad, was with a mind to consolidate the party’s push in the southern states, with a key focus on Telangana where the party is keen to build a base. After the executive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi even held a massive rally in Hyderabad.

Leaders from the Karnataka unit have said that holding the meeting in the state will help them prepare for the upcoming assembly polls, especially since the party is battling with the popularity that Congress’s yatra attracted. The BJP has also had its own padyatras in the state, the Karnataka Jan Samvad rallies, to consolidate voters.

In the MP unit, too, the large crowds that the Congress’s yatra drew has been discussed within the party unit, and a leader from the state said that the presence of PM Modi could help matters. “If we are to fight the elections with full force, a massive rally by Modi ji can tilt the vote in our favour; he has great appeal in the state,” the leader said.

The national executive will have on its agenda primarily the issue of the party president, since the tenure of Nadda comes to an end, and the party will now have to decide whether he gets an extension or will someone be brought in. Apart from that, a key focus will be the seats where the party performed badly in 2019 – the BJP had identified 144 such seats on which it had started work, but that was later increased to 160 seats after a survey in Bihar showed them some troubles.