After Davos, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a three-nation tour now (File)
Highlights
- BJP gears up for eight state elections this year
- The party is looking to ride on the strength of PM Narendra Modi
- Party heads warn BJP parliamentarians to work hard
When BJP lawmakers met on Friday morning for the last in the series of weekly meetings at the parliament building before heading out to their constituencies, there were two reading materials that were shown to them.
One was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new book for school students. The other got more attention. It is an in-house booklet with PM Modi on the cover, with the title in bold lettering - "Global Legend." Above that is the word, "unbeatable."
The cover also says, "Modi Becomes Global Leader. Defeats Pope Francis, Trump, Xi Jinping." The Prime Minister's photo is from his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who has compiled the magazine-format booklet of some 60 pages, said "positive" coverage of PM Modi's visit in the global media has underlined that "his leadership has been acknowledged not only in India but also across the world", news agency PTI reported.
But a senior party leader said, "He (PM Modi) has been on a roll since Davos... He heads off again to have five programmes in three days." It was a reference to PM Modi's visit beginning today to Palestine, the UAE and Oman.
As the BJP gears up for eight state elections this year - three of them this month in the north-east - and the national election next year, it is clear that the party will continue to bank on PM Modi magic. But along with the feel-good, the party also had to discuss at today's meeting the result of by-elections this month in Rajasthan, where the BJP lost three seats, two parliamentary and one assembly seat, to the Congress.
Party heads warned the MPs to work hard and to get the right messaging out to the people on the Union Budget presented last week. "Please do not speak about the Ujjwala scheme to city people and talk about smart cities to a rural audience," the Prime Minister is reported to have said.
BJP chief Amit Shah criticised Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his party's continuous protests while PM Modi replied to the motion of thanks on the President's address in parliament this week.
"It is shameful and sad for democracy if under the new Congress president Rahul Gandhi, such precedents are set in parliament where his MPs can shout slogan while the Hon'ble PM is his delivering his Vote of Thanks for the Hon'ble President," Mr Shah said.
With inputs from PTI