Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Saturday outlined the party’s plans for the 2019 Lok Sabha election at a BJP conclave for panchayat polls in Assam to be held by May.
Addressing a meeting of 25,849 BJP booth presidents, 303 block presidents and other party workers, Mr. Shah said the party’s long-term goal beyond the rural polls was to win at least 21 of the 25 parliamentary seats across eight States in the Northeast. The BJP had won eight of these in 2014, seven of them in Assam.
“I used to be a booth president too. BJP is the only party where a person can make it to the top from the grassroots, and this is why we need to strengthen our base,” he said.
Mr. Shah cited BJP’s victory in Tripura to underline why the party needed to empower booth presidents to win every election, from panchayat to Parliament.
The BJP chief also started the process of appointing 3.33 lakh ‘page in-charge’ within the next six months. The job of a page in-charge is to interact regularly with people listed in pages of the electoral rolls assigned to him or her. “The way NEDA (North East Development Alliance) has expanded, we have set our sights on winning at least 21 seats besides doing well in the panchayat polls,” Mr. Shah said.
Hits out at Oppn.
He hit out at the Opposition, specifically the Congress, saying they have been unable to digest the march of the BJP and allies in States such as Maharashtra, Assam, Manipur, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Tripura after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
“This is the reason why they have not allowed even a minute of work in Parliament for the past 20 days,” the BJP chief said, adding that the government was ready to face a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha.
Mr. Shah also held a meeting with Ministers and MLAs of the party, members of the BJP’s core committee and leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Assam.
