New Delhi: The BJP has called a two-day organisational meeting that begins on Thursday and comes ahead of assembly elections in three states -- Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. Leaders from all three states will attend the meeting that is expected to project a united front and put to rest speculation about a rift with the party's ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. On July 27, a meeting of all BJP Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers is likely to be held, sources said.
Discussion is also expected on the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, in which the BJP performance has dropped far below its expectation. While the party has already held a "Chintan Shivir (introspection camp)", there is concern that the pitfalls be avoided in the coming round of assembly elections.
Two of the three states are currently ruled by the BJP and its allies.
But there is especial concern about Maharashtra, where the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi -- the alliance of Congress, Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party -- has roundly beaten the BJP.
The BJP is also hoping to bring Jharkhand -- currently ruled by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance -- under its control. Over the last year, there has been huge corruption allegations against the JMM, which culminated with the arrest of then Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
The situation in Haryana, next door to AAP-ruled Punjab, has not been very conducive for the BJP also. The NDA has lost five of the state's 10 seats to the Congress -- it had won all 10 in 2019. In Punjab, the Congress and AAP had cornered 10 of the 13 Lok Sabha seats.
The other gap the party is expected to tackle is the dearth of grassroot-level workers, which is seen as one of the underlying causes for the party's poor performance.
Most of the ground workers are cadres of the RSS, who double up and work for the BJP at election time. But the perceived gap between the BJP and its ideological mentor had apparently depleted their ranks ahead of the Lok Sabha election.
Sources indicated that plugging this hole is one of the key agendas of the two-day meet.