BJP national council to meet today

Party to ratify Amit Shah as president

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah is likely to caution the party to guard against overconfidence at the National Council meeting of the party to be held here on Saturday. The meeting has been called to ratify the anointment of Shah as president.

It would be followed by Shah naming his new team of office-bearers, expected to mark a generational shift in the hierarchy — with those born in the 1960s likely to be entrusted with greater responsibilities.

Shah is also likely to encourage the cadre to prepare for the tough Assembly elections the BJP faces in the next couple of years. Shah, according to sources close to him, wants the party to consolidate its success in West Bengal and Odisha.

The party under Shah has taken seriously the loss of all three Uttarakhand Assembly seats that saw bypolls recently. The party would like to guard against any complacency in the Assembly bypolls for 10 seats in Bihar on August 21, as also the 12 seats of the UP Assembly facing bypolls around end of the year.

Under Shah, the BJP has set for itself “mission 44+” for Assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir, and hopes to win state elections in Jharkhand, Haryana and Maharashtra. It is also alive to the possibility that Delhi will face an election. A source said Delhi BJP’s primarily upper caste Punjabi-Baniya leadership is gradually being replaced by those from other regions, including Himachal Pradesh, Eastern UP and Bihar.

Shah, 50, was nominated the president of the party by the BJP parliamentary board, the highest decision making body of the party, on July 9. This was after Rajnath Singh became the Home Minister and had to quit the post in conformity with the 'one person, one post' principle that BJP follows. The National Council, according to the party constitution, needs to stamp its approval on that selection.

The day long National Council session to be held at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium will witness speeches by party's state presidents and national leaders, including Shah and PM Narendra Modi. BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the meeting will also adopt a political resolution on current political and economic issues, including Modi-led government's achievements on domestic and foreign policy fronts as also its future roadmap.

Nearly 2,000 party leaders from across India will participate. This would include all five of BJP chief ministers, state party presidents, MLAs and MLCs, MPs, party's central leaders, and heads of its various cells.