400+ target on mind, BJP’s two-day brainstorming session from today

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, February 16

Ahead of the 18th General Election, the ruling BJP will assemble for a two-day branstorming session starting Saturday where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil the party’s campaign line for cadres from top to bottom.

As many as 11,500 delegates arrived in the national capital on Friday to take part in the BJP National Council meeting over the weekend.

PM Shri @narendramodi arrives for BJP National Office Bearers meeting at Bharat Mandapam. #BJPNationalCouncil2024 https://t.co/0q6bRQDmIy

— BJP (@BJP4India) February 17, 2024

Meanwhile, BJP chief JP Nadda on Friday opened an exhibition on ‘Viksit Bharat’ at Bharat Mandapam, the venue of the two-day National Council meeting of the BJP.

The council will pass two resolutions, including a political resolution, which is expected to hail PM Modi for his “stable and firm leadership over a decade”, and renew the call for the BJP to cross the 370-seat mark and the ruling NDA coalition to go past 400 in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

“The two-day National Conclave of the BJP will be an impactful meeting, which will lay the map for the achievement of the two targets PM Modi has set — 370 for the BJP and 400 for the NDA,” senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said about the meeting. The BJP conventionally organises a National Council meeting on the eve of every Lok Sabha election with PM Modi’s speech being the hallmark.

The National Council consists of all national office-bearers, ministers, state office-bearers, district office-bearers, mayors and deputy mayors besides BJP’s trademark “vistaraks”, a term used for full-time party workers who gather independent feedback on the political situation from a parliamentary segment.

The meeting will open with an inaugural address by BJP president JP Nadda and a meeting of the national office-bearers. PM Modi will deliver the valedictory address on the concluding day on February 18.

The meeting comes close after Congress’ tallest leader, former party president Sonia Gandhi abandoned the Lok Sabha route to file her nominations for the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections from Rajasthan. Sonia Gandhi has ruled herself out of the 18th LS race, a development which the BJP is sure to flag as a sign of retreat by the grand old party.