Puri:
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has asked party men to focus on the BJP's return to power at the Centre instead of projecting anyone, including him, as the party's prime ministerial candidate.
"Who will lead the party after elections is not important for us at this stage. Now our priority should be to ensure return of BJP to power," the party's election campaign committee
chairman told a select gathering of BJP's Odisha unit leaders at a hotel in Puri today.
The BJP strongman suggested that the state leadership prepare charge sheets against the Congress and the ruling BJD in Odisha. He said at least 10,000 mobile phones of each assembly segments should be regularly fed with BJP's ideologies and the "inefficiencies' of the Congress.
Mr Modi also asked the party men reach out to people living in villages and use social media like Facebook and Twitter. "We are passing through the age of technology. People in villages also now use mobiles and other means of communications," he said.
Asking the state leadership to identify leaders from different castes and give them positions within the party, Mr Modi said, "Caste leaders hold votes which are required for any party for elections. If necessary, give up your positions to accommodate caste leaders."
Describing his Gujarat experience, Mr Modi asked the Odisha leadership not to lose confidence and work towards installing a BJP government in the state. "BJP had only 16 MLAs in the Gujarat assembly in 1990 and no one in panchayat or urban local bodies. See the difference today. BJP has been ruling the state and will continue to do so in future," he said.
State BJP president KV Singh Deo reaffirmed that the party would go to polls alone.