As Delhi gets foggy, Modi arrives to review BJP’s poll preparedness

Away from the  hectic campaigning and tall talk at his public meetings, Narendra Modi is taking a break today to review the Bharatiya Janata Party’s poll preparedness, get feedback from various states and to work on a strategy for the next 100 days, during which time the Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule for the Parliamentary elections in 2014. Modi is making it a rather elaborate affair. All chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, all state unit presidents, leaders of opposition in various states, general secretaries, in-charge of states and campaign committee members will be flying to Delhi to attend this meeting. All five chief ministers will first meet in the morning in an extended Parliamentary Board meeting at the party headquarters at 11 Ashoka Road and then move to the Parliament Annexe building in the afternoon to have another extended meeting of the Central Election Campaign Committee meeting, which is expected to continue till late evening. The extended Parliamentary Board meeting is also a smart way of avoiding taking a call on the entry of Shivraj Singh Chouhan into the most powerful decision-making body. [caption id=“attachment_130402” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] This also time for the BJP to celebrate its tremendous performance in four north Indian states where it completely decimated the Congress. The party could not make a song and dance of its hit-and-miss showing in Delhi, more so because it allowed the Aam Admi Party to walk away with the honours. Now that the dust in Delhi has settled, the BJP leadership thinks it prudent to share their feelings collectively, discuss what went wrong for them in Delhi and make a statement for the big battle ahead. Incidentally this is also the first meeting of the central election campaign committee after Rajnath Singh took over as its chairman. Singh had taken over this position when Modi had to relinquish it after he was anointed as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. The central committee and its 19 sub-groups, which had virtually been non-functional since the time Modi was named BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, will be reactivated and assigned specific tasks that will have to be carried out within the next three months. Though the party’s campaign has been heavily Modi-centric, he has been carrying it on his own, through his own set of advisors and his own team in Ahmedabad, Banglore, Mumbai and Delhi, the party headquarters will have to be alive and keeping the organisational machinery in war preparedness mode. The leaders who have been invited for today’s meeting have been asked to give their feedback on emerging situations in their respective domains. The BJP is also calling a three-day national executive and council meeting in Delhi from January 17-19. The inaugural day party’s national executive meeting will coincide with the Congress’s AICC conclave on 17 January. The Congress is keeping the suspense alive on whether Rahul Gandhi will be declared its prime ministerial candidate at that conclave. In any case, their meet will be centred around Rahul. The BJP will be closely monitoring developments in their principal rival’s camp to accordingly work out their strategy.