With Allahabad meet, BJP to get into poll gear

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 24

With a national executive committee in Allahabad, the BJP leadership hopes to aim several targets in one go in the crucial poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. The convergence of the party’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah, in what is seen as a Congress-Samajwadi Party hold will send a “favourable message” among masses, leaders believe.

Though its last national executive in the state in 2011 did not give the BJP much satisfaction in Assembly polls that followed, party leaders claim the event on June 12-13 will set the course for their “Mission 2017” in the state. “Key national issues will be discussed at the meeting but UP will form the centre stage,” they say.

In that sense, the choice of the venue — the cultural, religious and political hub of the state and also the ancestral home of the Nehru-Gandhi family — is interesting. Apparently, the Congress strategy for 2017 is to invoke ex-PM Indira Gandhi and the Nehru-Gandhi family’s association with Allahabad and the state. Allahabad also holds significance for the ruling SP. Thus, by bringing together its top leadership in the land of Sangam, the BJP hopes to replicate its Assam’ success.