Eye on poll, PM to strategise with NDA MPs from today

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, July 30

Less than a fortnight after addressing a meeting of 39 ruling NDA parties on July 18, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick-start from the Capital a massive outreach with NDA MPs from all states starting Monday, in a bid to plan early for the upcoming state and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The meetings, to be held over tea and dinner between Monday and August 8, will thrash out state-wise strategies to ensure the NDA partners stay on the same page on key issues dominating the political narrative in this crucial poll year and set the agenda going forward. “Exposing the Opposition’s negative role will be a key discussion point,” sources said, adding that alliance modalities would obviously be on the table.

BJP’s preparations in top gear

• Until August 8, PM Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari will meet NDA MPs
• Meetings begin on Monday with MPs from UP, West Bengal, Jharkhand & Odisha which together send 157 MPs to Lok Sabha

Along with PM Modi, BJP president JP Nadda and top three Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari will attend each strategy meeting and break bread with allies, while finalising the election roadmap in an informal atmosphere.

The exercise, to be institutionalised and held during every Parliament session from here on, will start from Monday, with the PM and his team set to interact with MPs in two batches — UP batch and West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha batch.

Sources said tomorrow Nadda and Gadkari would attend the meeting with UP MPs while Shah and Rajnath would attend the second batch of Bengal and other state MPs.

Rest of the states will be covered between Tuesday and August 8, with NDA MPs from the northeast to be engaged on August 7. The Tribune has learnt that 11 groups of NDA MPs, state-wise, have been formed for the exercise.

The task of planning and executing this first of its kind ally engagement project conceived by the PM himself has been entrusted to a high-level team of government and BJP functionaries. From the BJP, national general secretary Tarun Chugh and BJP national secretary Rituraj Sinha (in-charge of northeastern states) have been drafted for the exercise.

From the government side, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, his deputies Arjun Meghwal and V Muraleedharan, and Union Ministers Bhupender Yadav and Sarbanand Sonowal are coordinating.

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