Thousands of workers are expected to gather at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi.
New Delhi:
The BJP headquarters in New Delhi is set for a flurry of activity on Wednesday evening, with thousands of party workers gathering to give Prime Minister Narendra Modi a grand welcome after the successful G20 summit.
The fact that India hosted the prestigious summit and succeeded in reaching a consensus on the New Delhi Declaration is seen as a major diplomatic victory. The country’s successful presidency of the G20 and his championing of the issues of the Global South have also strengthened his case for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Immediately after the welcome, the Prime Minister will start working on election matters and participate in the meeting of the BJP’s Central Election Committee to decide on candidates for the crucial elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The committee had also met on August 16 and a day later, candidates were announced for 39 constituencies in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and 21 in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh. These were seats where the BJP has no sitting MLAs.
Sources said Wednesday’s meeting is likely to hold deliberations on 50 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh and 35 in Chhattisgarh. Madhya Pradesh has 230 seats in the Assembly and Chhattisgarh 90.
The other members of the committee include BJP president JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.
The nomination of the candidates in August, which took place three months before the elections in the United States, had surprised many as it was the first time that the BJP had announced a list before the Election Commission of India had announced the elections. dates.
The move was seen as an attempt to avoid any friction within the party and iron out issues ahead of elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram. This is especially important because the party had lost in all four major states in 2018.
The party had rebounded in the Lok Sabha elections the following year, defeating Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and outperforming the Congress in Telangana. It also managed to dethrone the Kalal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh, following the Jyotiraditya Scindia-led rebellion, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan took oath as chief minister in 2020.
As in 2018, the elections in the five states are being seen as a ‘semi-final’ ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year. They have become even more important because of the BJP’s big loss in Karnataka in May, which has left the party out of power in any state in southern India.
