Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah inaugurated party’s national executive meet on Saturday.
The two-day meeting will discuss current political situation in the country and take stock of organisational issues besides fine-tuning party’s strategy for the ensuing Assembly elections in five states.
Elections to five state Assemblies in April-May will reportedly be part of the deliberations during which Uttar Pradesh, which will go to the polls early next year and where BJP’s stakes are high, may also figure.
Shah will deliver the inaugural speech while Modi will deliver the valedictory address.
The “pro-poor and pro-village” budget will be at the centre of the economic resolution, they said.
According to reports, the meeting comes in the backdrop of recent controversy over alleged anti-national slogans in Jawaharlal Nehru University, the death of a Dalit scholar in Hyderabad University and Jat quota agitations in Haryana.
Sources said the “disinformation” campaign by Congress to “defame” the government, the Ishrat Jahan and JNU rows besides the budget features will be the key issues on the agenda, as per PTI.
“The opposition, especially Congress, has been exposed in the last 20 months over a host of issues, be it returning of awards by a section of intelligentsia or JNU row where it chose to side with anti-national forces. These will come up for discussion,” a party leader said.
The need to inform the masses about the “pro-poor and pro-village” aspects of the budget will be stressed upon at the meeting, party sources said, adding that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be the main speaker on the issue.
The party’s office-bearers will first meet and the much-larger executive will go into a huddle in the afternoon.
All top party leaders, including Shah, had hit out at Congress, particularly its vice president Rahul Gandhi, over the issue at a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha convention recently.
“We believe that the issue has highlighted Congress’ increasing ideological hollowness and that it can take up any cause in its desperation to target the government,” sources said.
The recent revelations in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case will also provide ammunition to the party to attack Congress.