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The BJP is hoping to take corrective steps at the earliest in south India in the backdrop of the recent election defeat in Karnataka. (PTI/File)
With Lok Sabha elections 2024 in top focus, sources privy to the developments told News18 that the southern generals of the BJP have been given a four-point mantra by the top brass.
BJP president JP Nadda chaired a day-long meeting of southern party leaders in the presence of general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh and general secretaries Tarun Chugh and Sunil Bansal on Sunday and the topic of discussion at hand was how to reverse the dwindling electoral fortunes of the party in the southern states.
With Lok Sabha elections 2024 in top focus, sources privy to the developments told News18 that the southern generals of the BJP have been given a four-point mantra by the top brass.
“Four important focus areas have been identified by the party. First, the need to focus on outreach to castes and communities that have poor or no representation in the BJP. Second, identifying strong non-BJP leaders who might be unhappy with the policies of the party they are currently in and convincing them that the Narendra Modi government believes in working for all. Third, the focus needs to be on looking at the pros and cons of any state-related alliances. Finally, the focus needs to be on identifying issues that concern the state specifically and bringing them to the fore,” a source told News18.
The big focus of the saffron party in the coming days and weeks will be to emphatically state its narrative irrespective of the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in whose name the party has been contesting elections.
“There is an urgent and important need for the BJP to specify its narrative and spell it out clearly. Be it general elections or Assembly elections, the party needs to clearly speak out in one voice about the principles and commitments to the cause of the nation,” another source told News18 following Sunday’s meeting.
With around six months to go before campaigning for Lok Sabha elections begins in full swing, party units in southern states have been asked to come up with a well-conceived action plan that can be executed well.
In other states of the country, booth strengthening drives, micro-level management and membership drives have done wonders for the party. But despite holding down majority in the Lok Sabha in 2014 and 2019, electoral success in the southern states has eluded the BJP.
The party is now hoping to take corrective steps at the earliest in the backdrop of the recent election defeat in Karnataka.
Politics in southern India has been largely personality driven — Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu to KCR in Telangana, and Chandrababu Naidu and Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh.
Of 130 MPs from the five southern states, the BJP only has 29, most of whom are from Karnataka.
“Three morcha chiefs — Tejasvi Surya (Yuva Morcha), Vanathi Srinivasan (Mahila Morcha) and K Laxman (OBC Morcha) are from the south. Even in the Union government, four ministers — Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Pralhad Joshi and Kishen Reddy are from the south. The Modi cabinet also has six MoS from southern India,” said a BJP insider, adding that in Sunday’s meeting, directions were passed to showcase the representation among people.
Those present were also told to highlight the fact that even in the top-most decision-making body of the party, southern representation is sizeable. BS Yediyurappa and BL Santhosh are both members of the BJP Parliamentary Board.
The party’s top leadership has expressed confidence in improving its performance in the south with alliance being explored with the TDP in Andhra Pradesh and strengthening the one with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu.
The party which held meetings of state leaders in three batches saw the last one conclude in Hyderabad on Sunday. Leaders from 11 states and Union Territories were present in the meeting, including Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu Telangana, Goa, Maharashtra and Puducherry.
On July 7, a meeting was held in Guwahati for the eastern and north-eastern states and in Delhi on July 8 for northern and central states.
The party is likely to organise a brainstorming session of all state presidents in the end of July or the first week of August.
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