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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday exhorted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members of Parliament (MPs) from Maharashtra to strive for the party’s victory in the coming Assembly polls.
The prime minister held a dinner meeting with 23 BJP MPs from Maharashtra at his official residence in the national capital on Tuesday night. This was his third meeting since he became PM.
Modi, who is personally monitoring the party's preparations for the state polls, asked MPs to reach out to voters, focus on the development agenda and play up the 2-month-old National Democratic Alliance government's achievements.
Modi also asked MPs not to bother about the BJP’s seat-sharing arrangement with Maha Yuti or ‘Grand Alliance’ members the Shiv Sena, Republican Party of India, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, Rashtriya Samaj Party and Shiv Sangram as central and state leaders were in the midst of sealing the deal. Instead, Modi asked MPs to take every section of society into confidence and simultaneously pay more attention of further strengthening the party organisation at the grass-root level.
“Modiji’s message was quite clear that all MPs would have to work hard for the BJP's sterling performance in the polls. The party would have to improve its tally in the state,” Gopal Shetty, who was elected from north Mumbai constituency, told Business Standard.
Further, Sanjaykaka Patil, who left the Nationalist Congress Party and was elected on a BJP ticket from Sangli seat, said that prime minister gave valuable tips to first-time MPs like him and asked them to concentrate on their respective constituencies. “The party's victory, with an improved tally in respective constituencies was Modiji's message to all of us,” he noted.
Tuesday's meeting convened by Modi with party MPs was crucial especially when the BJP is currently engaged in seat-sharing talks with the Sena and other Maha Yuti. BJP has indicated that it wants to tweak the 169:119 seat sharing formula as more allies have joined in the alliance. The state BJP plans to release the first list of its candidates by August 15.
State BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis and leader of opposition in the state assembly Eknath Khadse have already announced that the party will contest the coming Assembly election through collective leadership. Both made it amply clear that BJP won't project any particular leader as the chief minister's candidate.
