BJP President Rajnath Singh (C) with party leaders L K Advani, Narendra Modi, and Arun Jaitley at the party office bearers meeting in New Delhi on Thursday
Achieving a target of more than 272 seats in this year's Lok Sabha elections will be the focus as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders meet for a three-day brainstorming session in New Delhi, starting today.
"This session will be very important," party leader Sudhanshu Trivedi told reporters on Thursday after a meeting of the party's national office-bearers, which reflected on the agenda of the national executive meet.
"In his opening address to the meet, party president Rajnath Singh said we must focus on 'Mission 272 Plus'," Mr Trivedi said. The BJP currently has 117 members in the 545-member Lok Sabha.
Mr Trivedi also accused the Congress of practicing "politics of deceit", accusing it of running a negative propaganda against the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Asked if the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was part of the Congress' deceit, Mr Trivedi said it would include "taking support of some political parties".
The BJP had charged that the Congress supported the AAP to keep the saffron party out of power.
Mr Trivedi remained silent when asked if the AAP's rising popularity would be discussed in the meet.
The national executive of the BJP will meet at the NDMC Convention Centre on January 17 while the national council will hold discussions at Ramlila Maidan on January 18-19.
Two resolutions - a political and an economic one - will be passed and the party will also make an assessment of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's performance, said party sources.
Sources added the political resolution is to focus on bad governance of the UPA in the light of various scams and present the BJP as a strong alternative to the Congress at the centre.
Relations with neighbouring countries, foreign policy and internal security will also be taken up.
The economic resolution will focus on the "poor" state of the economy under the UPA, which has "hampered" growth and investment in the country.
"Corruption of the UPA and price rise are among the core issues," a party leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told IANS.
BJP leaders will also discuss the road map for the poll campaign.
"Role of social media is crucial, it will also be taken up," the leader added.
Those who will attend the meeting include, besides party president Rajnath Singh, L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi, M. Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari and chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje, Raman Singh and Manohar Parrikar.
The national executive comprises a group of leaders appointed by the party president. The national executive meeting is usually held once in three months.
The BJP national council is the bigger group which includes all party office-bearers and meets once a year.