Two reasons why Council of Ministers' meet chaired by PM Modi this Sunday will be special

With the country gearing up for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meeting of the Union Council of Ministers on March 3 in New Delhi.

The meeting, which is expected to set the tone of the party’s election campaign, will be held at the Sushma Swaraj Bhawan in the Chanakyapuri diplomatic enclave in New Delhi.

It also comes after the BJP announced the first list of Lok Sabha candidates on Saturday, a day after the saffron party held back-to-back CEC meetings.

Although the prime minister has chaired several Council of Ministers meetings, the latest one holds significance for two reasons.

It may be the last of Modi’s second term

This will be the last time PM Modi holds a Council of Ministers meeting before the end of his second term before the country goes to poll.

One of the key points to be discussed during the exercise could be the highlights of the government’s performance, as the BJP-led ruling National Democratic Alliance has expressed confidence in retaining power at the Centre for a third term under Modi on the back of its development and welfare planks.

According to a report by the Times of India, the meeting will see the first presentation of the full ‘Viksit Bharat.’

“This will be a key meeting considering that in the interim Budget, the FM announced that govt will present a detailed roadmap for Viksit Bharat’ in the full budget in July. Since the PM is confident of his govt returning, we expect that he will speak his mind on the bigger plan,” a government official told TOI.

Meanwhile, the prime minister has also asked his cabinet to come up with an action plan for the next 100 days as well as a roadmap for the next five years.

EC to announce the poll schedule soon

The second reason why this meeting is crucial as it comes ahead of the Election Commission’s announcement of the dates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

In 2014, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the nine-phased Lok Sabha elections on March 5 and the results were declared on May 16.

In 2019, the poll panel announced the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on March 10 and the results were declared on May 23.

The poll body is currently holding meetings to gauge preparedness in the various states for the elections.

BJP releases first list of LS candidates

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday released its first list of 195 Lok Sabha candidates from 16 states and two Union Territories ahead of the general elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi for the third time.

The announcement of the list, which includes 34 Union Ministers and Ministers of State(MoS) and two former Chief Ministers, comes after the saffron party held a meeting of BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) chaired by PM Modi.

While announcing the list, BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde said that the first list includes 28 women candidates, 47 youths, 27 Scheduled Caste, 18 Scheduled Tribe and 57 OBC candidates.

With inputs from agencies