The newly revamped National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) met on Sunday, 7 November following the party's mixed performance in the recent by-elections. The meeting was inaugurated by PM Modi and party president JP Nadda and around 342 people participated in it, reported news agency ANI.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the NEC convention centre on Sunday to attend the meeting and addressed party leaders, saying that the BJP has reached this position because it has always been associated with common man, reported news agency PTI.
"BJP is not centred around any family. Its values are ‘sewa, sankalp, samarpan’ (service, resolution and commitment),” PM Modi was quoted as saying. “The connect of our workers with common people has made us succeed," he reportedly added.
PM Modi further asked party workers to become a bridge of faith for the common man, party leader Bhupender Yadav told PTI.
“In his address, Prime Minister Modiji gave a mantra to the party workers that they should become a bridge of faith between the common man and the party, while referring to the party’s history as it has always been associated with the issues close to the common man of the country,” Yadav said. Yadav also said that the BJP's strategy for the upcoming Assembly polls in five states was discussed in the party's national executive.
This is the first time the BJP national executive held a meeting since 2019 and it comes just weeks before the upcoming state Assembly elections are notified. The party’s general secretaries had met on Saturday to finalise the resolutions that was be adopted at Sunday’s meeting.
What Nirmala Sitharaman Said
"We will be in support of each and every BJP worker in West Bengal and will work to get them justice in court. The state has seen so much political violence," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said after the meeting.
Hinting at what all was discussed she said, "We also discussed how after the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K, the DDC and BDC elections have showed how people are willing to come out to participate in democratic processes."
The 'PM-CARES for Children' programme for orphaned children showed how the PM and our government cares for the next generation and children, Sitharaman said in the press conference.
"'One Nation, One Ration Card' has also been taken up and implemented speedily," she said.
"Within 48 hours of announcing the lockdown, we came up with giving people food for free for 8 full months — for 80 crore people."Nirmala Sitharam, Finance Minister
On the Opposition's reaction to the government's achievements, Sitharaman said that the prime minister is working to build the nation's image but the Opposition is doing just the opposite.
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Holds Press Conference
"The global tragedy of coronavirus has surrounded all of us for the past two years. All the countries of the world were affected by this tragedy. For this reason, after a long gap, after about 1.5 years, the meeting of the BJP's national executive is being held," Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan said in a press conference after the meeting.
"When our government came in 2014, there was a provision of spending only Rs 23,000 crore for the farmers in the budget. But in the budget presented by the Finance Minister last time, a provision of Rs 1 lakh, 23 thousand crore has been made for the farmers," he said.
Speaking on India's ongoing vaccination programme, Pradhan said, "More than 100 crore vaccinations have been done in the country, more than 30 percent of the total population have received both the doses. The WHO has recognised the Covaxin manufactured by India."
"Due to PM Modi's global leadership, today the big countries of the world consider his administrative initiative as ideal, to take the country forward from the challenging path in the difficult times of corona," Pradhan said.
In the meeting, political resolutions were placed by Yogi Adityanath and seconded by Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai K, ANI reported. Six leaders G Kishan Reddy, Biren Singh, Anurag Thakur, Pramod Sawant, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Pushkar Dhami spoke on the political resolution.
Meanwhile, Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma at the meeting said that BJP will contest on all seats in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
BJP Reconstitutes National Executive
The BJP reconstituted its national executive last month, and currently includes 80 regular members, 50 special invitees and 179 permanent invitees, including chief ministers, deputy chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, leaders of the legislative assemblies, and state presidents among others.
The BJP’s vote share declined by 20 percent in the Lok Sabha by-poll in the Mandi constituency that was won by the Congress. In Dadra and Nagar Haveli too, the BJP’s vote share fell by 7 percent. While it retained the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh, the party again saw a dip in vote share of 7 percent.
Reports suggested that the officers will discuss the elections in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, and Congress-ruled Punjab, that are scheduled to be held early next year while Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh vote later in 2022.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)