The National Executive meet of the party which started here in “a village setting” analysed an array of issues bedeviling the party to help the party emerge from the poll reverses in the Lok Sabha and the recent state assembly elections.
In his presidential address, Nitin Gadkari said senior leaders who owe their current statures to the party should mull over their “disconnect” with the masses. He said small party workers at the grassroots cannot be questioned on this account. Gadkari quoted a 72-year-old BJP worker as saying that though he had invested his entire life in the BJP he got “nothing in return.”
Gadkari said leaders should know whether “political career is more important or party’s ideology and future.”
Gadkari, who is to steer his party clear in next three years from the current muddle, is hammering on the dalit constituency to increase the BJP’s vote bank by at least 10 per cent. His stated “Antodaya” (uplift of the poorest) agenda is part of his current theme of linking the party with the lowest rung, particularly in the village. The setting of the tent township, though essentially symbolic, is part of his “new political programme.”
Gadkari likened Ambedkar to the US black leader Martin Luther King, saying in a democracy all decisions should be linked to justice. The BJP was determined to wage its war against untouchability. Seeking to challenge Rahul Gandhi’s bid to attract dalits, Gadkari on Tuesday had lunch in the house of local dalit BJP corporator Preeti Karosiya.
Party spokesman Ravishankar Prasad told journalists that the country should come first, party second and “myself” last in the priority list of the BJP leaders.
Gadkari also touched on the bias in the ticket distribution and maintained that the most popular candidate should be allotted the party ticket.
Prasad sought to make it clear that the BJP would continue its alliance with the Shiv Sena despite “credible differences” on many issues. On international issues, Gadkari accused the UPA Government of weakening Indian hold over Jammu and Kashmir under the US pressure. China and Pakistan are having a close strategic and diplomatic alliance against India with fake currency racket in Nepal completing the triangle.
The party will begin its two-day national Council on Thursday and come out with political, economic resolutions along with one on internal security.
DH News Service
‘Govt helping punters’
Indore, dhns: The BJP on Wednesday accused the ruling dispensation of helping punters make a profit of Rs 40,000 crore by allowing forward trading in essential food commodities.
Addressing a press conference here, BJP spokesman Prakash Javadaker said punters raked in profit in commodities like wheat, rice, oil and dal.
He claimed that in the speculative buying of Rs 138 lakh tonne of turmeric, the actual delivery was made only to the tune of 8,000 tonne.
“Money of this kind could not have been possible without the support of the ruling party”, he said.
On the steep rise in sugar prices, the BJP leader claimed 48 lakh tonne of sugar was exported at the rate of Rs 12 and the same commodity was imported in the country at the rate of Rs 30.
The party is expected to bring a separate resolution on the issue after the deliberation in the National Council on Thursday.
Meet gets a rural touch
Indore: In the sprawling Omex city with 3,300 tents housing party leaders and workers, battery-operated vehicles ferried senior BJP leaders, including L K Advani, Gadkari, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Venkaiah Naidu and all party chief ministers to the venue of the National Executive.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddiurappa was yet to arrive in his chartered plane when the closed-door meet started.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi also travelled to Indore in his own plane.
Special tents
All the chief ministers have special tents which are equipped with the state-of-the-art communication gagets.
Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhra Raje did not attend the National Executive meeting.
Gadkari, Advani, Swaraj and Jaitley had the privilege of being on the dais. Modi occupied the last but one row.
Naidu, Ananth Kumar, Joshi and Varun Gandhi sat in the front row.
The deliberations took place inside the “the big hut” with all the members wearing colourful traditional head gears.
The site is surrounded by real food crop with cows and calf—the old Congress poll symbol—thrown around.
To give a real rural touch, the leaders were served with green salads.
The posters and banners depicted all senior leaders, including Ananth Kumar, Shanawaz Khan and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, were also placed.
DH News Service