The BJP practically launched its election campaign for the 14th Lok Sabha poll at its three-day national council meet in Nagpur from February 6, 2009. Brimming with enthusiasm delegates from all over the country, who assembled at the historic city of Nagpur, which is also the headquarters of the RSS?the BJP'sspiritual inspiration?expressed the confidence that the next election is all about making Shri LK Advani, the next Prime Minister. The resolve at the end of the three-day meet was loud and clear.
It is high time the corrupt, inefficient and incompetent Dr Manmohan Singh'sregime unseated, which BJP president Shri Rajnath Singh described as non-performing asset (NPA), and exhorted the people of the country to bring an efficient and people-friendly government of the NDA to power.
The three-day council of the main opposition party in the orange city of Maharashtra zeroed in on issues that could woo voters to regain power. The mega event of the BJP was considered crucial as it provided a chance to steer the nation out of the economic slowdown. The meet was entirely dedicated to give a new direction to the party rank and file for the final Lok Sabha poll preparations.
Seven thousand delegates attended the council. It made a critical review of the progress achieved by the state units during the past five years.
The national council meeting was the last major exercise involving the whole representative party apparatus under the incumbent party president Shri Rajnath Singh.
The party passed three resolutions, namely, political, economic and agriculture. In different brainstorming sessions, the party formulated strategies by integrating ideological underpinnings with good governance and demands of pragmatic alliance formations and organisational expansion. Among the myriad issues, the party had focussed on development of the nation on all fronts, ensuring national security. The party also laid stress on the need for building the Ram temple at Ramjanmabhoomi in Ayodhya.
Shri LK Advani, who was at the centre of everybody's attractions, outlined the objectives of his entire strategies as to how to face the electoral battle. He gave directions to follow the work assigned to every worker, fixed responsibilities on the second-line leadership by decentralising the power structure to prepare a band of strong army to face the tough electoral battle ahead. Shri Advani expressed his satisfaction over the fact that the party is replete with young fiery-brand leaders like Smt Sushma Swaraj who has a mesmerising oratory skill. Shri Arun Jaitley who has a talent for leadership. Shri Shivrajsingh Chouhan and Dr Raman Singh who are popular chief ministers. Shri Narendra Modi, who has achieved a big name in development work and good governance. Shri Advani also announced a election finance committee under the chairmanship of former party chief Shri Venkaiah Naidu, with Shri Piyush Goel as convenor and Shri Arun Jaitley and Shri Ramdas Agrawal as members.
Shri Advani announced the structure of the party'selection campaign committee and projected a unified face that would ensure the electoral battle. Shri Narendra Modi has been given the charge of Maharashtra, Goa, Daman and Diu besides Gujarat. Shri Venkaiah Naidu would look after Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Smt Sushma Swaraj would take care of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab and Chandigarh would be looked after by Shri Arun Jaitley. Shri Ananth Kumar has also been assigned Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka while Shri Shanta Kumar and Shri Bhagat Singh Koshiyari will look after the election affairs in J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana. Shri V Satish has been entrusted with the task of election work in Orissa and Shri Saudan Singh with the help of Smt Vasundhara Raje will look after the election work in Rajasthan. Shri SS Ahluwalia, Shri Harendra Pratap and Shri Chandrasekhar will take care of Assam, the Northeast and Sikkim. All these leaders will take care of the election management of the respective states and the prabharis to those states will also continue to work as usual along with them.
The BJP in its political resolution demanded to snap ties with Pakistan on all fronts and asked the government to recall our High Commissioner from Islamabad if Pakistan does not take any proper action including handing-over of all the terrorists involved in Mumbai and other terrorist attacks.
The economic resolution, passed by the council, put the onus of slowdown in economy at the doorsteps of Dr Manmohan Singh government.
The resolution on agriculture passed at the council said that due to anti-farmer policies of the NDA government, more than 1200 farmers alone in Vidarbha region have committed suicide, since April 2008, after the implementation of the loan-waiver scheme. Ninety-two farmers have lost their lives in the first 37 days of 2009 itself. ?The situation has come to such a sorry state that one farmer commits suicide in the country every eight hours. Can there be a greater evidence of the total failure of the UPA'sscheme??
The BJP'sprime ministerial candidate Shri LK Advani, whom the seven thousand delegates gave a warm rousing welcome, delivered a concluding remark called margdarshan, which may be termed as a blueprint for the battle ahead. Shri Advani clearly gave instructions to the party leaders to ?avoid self-goal?, which was the reason for internal weaknesses that led to the party defeats in the Delhi and Rajasthan Assembly elections. He maintained that the BJP was a party with a difference its moorings are steeped in national ethos and values because while some other parties were family parties, some others were one-leader parties, but only the BJP had a leadership that had risen from amongst the party cadres. With utmost satisfaction, Shri Advani expressed: ?The party had groomed a galaxy of leaders systematically. This is not a matter of chance but a big achievement.? He advised the BJP CMs and second-rung leaders to work together, blending the national ethos with the regional and local aspirations in their own states. Greeted with thunderous applause, Shri Advani said: ?Sri Ram ke janmasthan mein Ram ka mandir kyon nahi banana chahiaye? (Why should there not be a temple of Sri Ram at Ramjanmabhoomi in Ayodhya?) Some say we have backtracked on the Ram issue, but I would like to reassure you that we never left Sri Ram issue.?
The party also organised a grand public meeting called Vijay Sankalp rally at the Yashwant Stadium, which was packed to its capacity. Maharashtra BJP chief Shri Nitin Gadkari and BJP national general secretary Shri Gopinath Munde, along with central party leaders, addressed the huge gathering. They noted that the sea of humanity at the Vijay Sankalp rally is an evident indication that Vijay Rath of NDA is now unstoppable.
