Mumbai: Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex grounds will witness a saffron jamboree on Friday when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) celebrates its 38th foundation day. Party president Amit Shah will address an expected 100,000 party workers at the event, termed a “Virat Melava” (mega convention) by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
After its foundation in 1980, the BJP held its first national convention in the city where former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was named the first president of the party, the new avatar of the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
The celebration is significant for the larger political messaging from Shah, BJP functionaries say. A senior BJP leader, who did not want to be named, said the mega convention had symbolic and contemporary political significance.
“BJP has this emotional connect with Mumbai for it is here that our journey began under Atalji’s leadership. It is only natural that we celebrate our foundation day in Mumbai when we rule the country and have governments in 22 states on our own or with allies, something that no party has achieved before. Amitji’s address is expected to enthuse the cadres for the battles ahead and also spell out the party’s position vis-à-vis allies like Shiv Sena,” said the BJP leader.
He said Shah may also address the “confusion” in the ordinary BJP worker’s mind about the Narendra Modi government’s position on Dalits in the context of recent protests over the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
“Party cadres are somewhat unsettled by the intensity of protests in some BJP-ruled states, even though the Modi government has taken several steps for Dalits unlike several previous governments put together. It is the public perception of BJP being an anti-Dalit party which the cadres are worried about and Amitji may try to dispel that perception and give something to the cadres that they can carry with them when they go back to their areas,” the BJP leader said.
In fact, Fadnavis, while engaging with BJP office-bearers on Tuesday, told them that the BJP’s opponents created “misconceptions about BJP being an anti-minority party when the truth is that the BJP’s minority morcha held a state-wide Samvad Yatra which engaged the Muslims and explained to them the measures the Modi government has taken for them.” Fadnavis stressed that the BJP had the maximum number of SC and ST MPs as well as legislators in Maharashtra and other states where it was ruling.
The convention is also an exercise in BJP’s preparation for the next year’s general election and state assembly elections. Fadnavis pointed out that all booth workers from the state are expected to attend the convention. In addition, office bearers from the BJP cells for minorities, SC, ST, Other Backward Classes (OBC), women, and farmers will also attend the convention.
Another state BJP functionary, who requested anonymity, said Shah could also speak about the BJP’s relationship with its allies like Shiv Sena in the wake of the Telugu Desam Party’s exit from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. “In Delhi, opposition parties have started an exercise to forge together some sort of front against BJP. Chandrababu Naidu himself met some opposition leaders yesterday and Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut too. Though it is a BJP convention, national politics is at such a juncture that we could expect something on that from Amitji,” said the BJP functionary.