BJP national council today: All eyes on hero Modi, new president Amit Shah

Ahead of his address to the nation on 15 August from the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today have the chance to address the party rank and file, tell them of his achievements and unveil his vision for the future, when he speaks at the BJP national council meet at Nehru stadium today. This will mark his first major interaction with the party since his election. In Modi, the BJP currently see their hero. It will be interesting to see what he says to lift their morale further. This will in fact, be the Prime Minister’s first political speech after a gap of two months. His last was on 11 June when he spoke in Parliament to conclude the motion of the thanks to the President’s address, during a joint session of Parliament. That speech was widely appreciated. [caption id=“attachment_1656847” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] Since then a number of developments have taken place. Domestically, he has been through a number of challenges, juxtaposed with some successful foreign trips, most notably to Bhutan and Nepal. The issue of price rise is still a major concern and there have been instances of communal flare ups, particularly in UP, the state he now represents. And the Congress has successfully stalled, at least for now, the Insurance bill, which would have signalled his resolve to push economic reforms. At the national council today, he will be among his own people, all of whom believe in him and untiringly sweated it out to make him Prime Minister. He has to outline a plan for the party for the coming assembly elections elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. On the sidelines, he also has to take a view on the fate of Delhi assembly, particularly in a situation when the Delhi High Court has given the centre a five week deadline to decide what to do next. The 3000-member strong National Council is essentially meeting to ratify the elevation of Modi’s protege Amit Shah to the post of BJP president. For Shah, this will be his first face to face interaction with party workers. He has to inspire confidence in his ability to lead. The UP election results, where the BJP won an unprecedented 73 out of 80 seats, catapulted him to the status of a leader and prompted the BJP and RSS to elevate him to the topmost post in the organisation. It will be incumbent on him to outline his strategy to consolidate the sudden spurt in popular support for the BJP in areas where the party already has a strong presence and take it forward in areas where encouraging signs came up, in the east and south. But at the moment, his primary focus will be to make his party battle ready for assembly elections. LK Advani will make the concluding remarks, which BJP has so far called, margdarshan (guidance). Advani’s speech will get a lot of attention, both within and outside, with attention likely to be focused on how he endorses the functioning of the Modi government and what he suggests for the future.