Focus on development, winning 370 seats will be fitting tribute to Syama Prasad Mookerjee: PM Modi at BJP meet

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, February 17

In a passionate appeal to BJP cadres on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked them to win 370 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections not as some trophy but as a fitting tribute to Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who died in 1953 for the cause of Jammu and Kashmir’s integration with India.

Addressing office-bearers at the start of the BJP’s National Council meeting on the poll eve, the PM said the target of 370 segments for the BJP and 400 for the ruling NDA coalition “was not a mere number”.

“It is a profound sentiment for us and would mark a fitting tribute to Mookerjee, who advocated the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K and died for it. As a tribute to him, we must consciously strive to win 370 Lok Sabha seats and an additional 370 votes on each polling booth,” the PM told the top party brass at the iconic Bharat Mandapam, draped in hues of saffron as 11,500 BJP delegates from the PM and ministers down to district chiefs assembled for a two-day brainstorming on the coming elections.

The National Council meeting, a customary BJP gathering on every General Election eve, witnessed unprecedented energy today as the PM declared that lotus would be the candidate on each seat; BJP chief JP Nadda vowed a hat-trick in the 2024 polls; and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hailed Modi as “Captain India” and the “sole global leader whom everyone trusted with solutions”.

The focus of Modi, Nadda and Rajnath Singh’s utterances was “development, welfare and India’s rising global profile” with the Ram Temple in Ayodhya featuring as a prominent but not principal mention in major interventions.

Earlier today, BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde said PM Modi had asked the party to focus on development as the poll campaign line.

“The PM emphasised that the Opposition will engage in divisive politics of you vs me (tu tu mai mai), but we must not be distracted. The BJP election campaign will be based on development, initiatives for the welfare of the poor and efforts to enhance the pride of our nation globally,” Tawde said, elaborating the import of the PM’s closed-door remarks to the leaders.

Modi’s “taint-free development-driven 25 years of governance as Gujarat CM and later as Prime Minister” would also form the centrepiece of the BJP’s election campaign for which a 100-day plan was given to the workers today.

“A national-level beneficiary outreach campaign will start on February 25 and over the next 100 days, every worker will need to engage beneficiaries at the booth level, educate first-time voters about the difference between pre-2014 and post-2014 India, win the confidence of mothers and sisters and work for four castes — poor, youth, farmers and women,” Tawde said, signalling the BJP’s preparation for micromanagement of polls.

Already, massive organisational outreach appears to have been achieved, with Nadda informing the party today that 8.5 lakh of the 10.46 lakh booths had been covered and 7.5 lakh villages reached under the ongoing “Gaon Chalo campaign”.

Union ministers tasked with nurturing 161 Lok Sabha seats the BJP had lost in 2019 have reported that they have visited each seat thrice. “We will win a majority of these 161 seats this time,” Nadda said to the senior leaders today, sharing plans for special engagement with self-help groups and NGOs.