Amit Shah holds BJP leaders' strategy meet for 2019 general elections, aims to bag over 350 seats

New Delhi: Sounding the bugle for the next general election, BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday chaired a meeting of party leaders in New Delhi to chalk out a strategy for “Mission 2019” and on ways to bag more than 350 seats. As part of the strategy, Shah asked leaders to focus on the 150 seats which the party lost in the 2014 election, sources in the BJP said. [caption id=“attachment_3933861” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Amit Shah. Reuters[/caption] These seats were in various states including West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka and in the north east. The meeting was attended by 31 party leaders including Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ananth Kumar and JP Nadda. Party office bearers Ram Lal, Anil Jain and Bhupender Yadav were also present at the meet. Power-point presentations were also shown at the meeting, elaborating on the party’s plans for the elections. Shah told the leaders the party was eyeing a two-third majority, or more than 350 seats in the next general elections. The BJP president, who has been visiting states as part of a 110-day country-wide tour to expand the party’s base and win new states, believes that the BJP should also remain in power at the Centre. After 30 years, a single party crossed the halfway mark when the BJP won 282 seats in the 2014 elections. It bagged 10 more than the required number for a majority in the 543-member House. Shah was the party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP won an unprecedented 71 out of 80 seats in the last general poll.