JP Nadda chairs meet with BJP top brass in New Delhi; 2022 Assembly polls on agenda

Preparation for the assembly polls in five states early next year was the main agenda of a meeting of senior BJP leaders, including several Union ministers, on Saturday as they deliberated on political and governance issues linked to these states.

Party president JP Nadda and Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Smriti Irani, and Kiren Rijiju were among those who attended the meeting, party leaders said.

"Preparation for the assembly polls in five states were the main agenda of the meeting," a party leader said after the meeting.

Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa are slated for early next year.

The BJP is in power in all these states except Punjab and has been holding a series of meetings of its senior leaders as it works to put up an impressive show in the next round of elections.

Uttar Pradesh is especially crucial to the BJP's political fortunes as the party has been the dominant power in the country's largest state since Prime Minister Narendra Modi led it to power in 2014.

The ruling party leaders have been holding deliberations for some time over a number of political and governance issues.