New Delhi:
All eyes are on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who is addressing the concluding session of the Bharatiya Janata Party's National Council meeting in New Delhi. The three-day conclave, which is aimed at strategising for the upcoming assembly and general elections as also looking at a reorganisation of the party structure, has seen Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi taking centrestage.
Mr Modi, whose record electoral success in Gujarat has sent his stocks soaring in the BJP, is expected to be elevated to a bigger role in the party. Signs of his growing popularity and clamour for his name as the party's prime ministerial candidate were on full display as the chief minister was given a rousing welcome by the nearly 2,200 members who were present at the meeting. In fact, BJP President Rajnath Singh heaped fulsome praise on Mr Modi, referring to him as a "popular chief minister", even as senior party leaders gave the latter a standing ovation. (
Narendra Modi's Gujarat is 'model state in the world': BJP chief Rajnath Singh)
"Narendra
bhai was successful for the third time. Every worker, leader was filled with joy when it happened (December last). The party had not seen such success under leadership of an individual. It is a new record in BJP's history," Mr Singh said.
The BJP President has been authorised by the party's national executive to reconstitute and expand the parliamentary board, the party's highest decision-making body, thus paving the way for the entry of Mr Modi as well as his Madhya Pradesh counterpart, Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The conclave, convened mainly to ratify Rajnath Singh as president, has focused on deliberations on its roadmap to the next general elections as also on a host of political and economic issues.