'Only 400 days left, reach out...': PM Modi's poll outreach at party's national executive meeting

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, PM Narendra Modi asked leaders of the BJP to carry out a ‘Bhajpa Jodo Andolan’ during his hour-long address to delegates on the concluding day of the two-day BJP National Executive Meet in New Delhi.

Briefing reporters on the PM’s address, Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said that the PM asked the delegates to concentrate on ensuring that more people join the party. “The prime minister very clearly asked us to reach out to all sections of society mindfully and to ensure that we must try to plug gaps if any without worrying about votes. Our duty is to socially transform the country,” Fadnavis said.

He added that the PM said that while the party has attracted many people for its inner party democracy, there has been a lack of meetings of the party’s primary members and the party will start these soon.

While the party's political resolution concentrated on the Opposition’s “propaganda” against Modi, Fadnavis said that the BJP does not take any Opposition party lightly. “We expect that in this yatra of Amrit Kaal, everyone will play their role, and we do not take any Opposition party lightly. But the BJP has worked on this force (of development) and on our own, we are now capable of driving socio-economic development amongst the most underprivileged,” he said.

Fadnavis's comments come as Rahul Gandhi's 3500-km-long Bharat Jodo Yatra enters its last leg on January 19, reaching Jammu and Kashmir via Kathua on the 125th day. While 2023 has a string of nine state elections, speculation has intensified that a tenth assembly election could take place in the Union Territory soon.

The PM also reminded the delegates that with only 400 days left for general elections, it is time the party intensified its efforts. The prime minister, a leader attending the NEC told DH, said that they should try and reach out to sections that traditionally do not vote for the party, making a special mention of Pasmanda and Bohra Muslims. The party had also resolved to reach out to Pasmanda Muslims in its last NEC, held at Hyderabad in July last year.

"He said that we must try and build a good relationship with Muslims and Christians, without thinking of votes. We must cooperate with them, especially during their key festivals such as Muharram and Ramadan,” a delegate from the Northeast told DH.

PM Modi also spoke about the need to reach out to border villages and ensure that there is a party structure till the district and mandal level, in a bid to mainstream voters from these regions. Fadnavis said that the PM exhorted his party colleagues to reach out to voters in the age group of 18 to 25 years, to explain to them the “misrule” during the UPA years, with a comparative analysis of BJP’s “good governance”.

“Most of these youngsters were in the age group of 10 to 13 when the UPA was in power, so there is a need to tell them about what bad governance looks like,” Fadnavis told reporters.

PM Modi has also asked party leaders to start a new campaign to combat climate change, on the lines of the BJP government’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign. “The BBBP campaign fought gender disparity, and in a similar vein, we must reach out to farmers to tell them about the unchecked usages of fertilisers and chemicals which will lead us to an ecological crisis,” Fadnavis said.

The PM also asked the party leaders to organise more programmes like the Kashi Tamil Sangam for cultural exchanges between various states.