Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and senior BJP leader LK Advani during the party's National Executive meet in Allahabad on Sunday, June 12, 2016. (PTI photo)
The BJP's two-day National Executive is underway in Allahabad to look for a winning formula for the next round of assembly elections in five states, especially the high-stakes battle in Uttar Pradesh.Senior Cabinet ministers, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, party MPs and other senior leaders are participating in the conclave.
Here are the latest developments
Sources said PM Modi asked BJP office bearers to take forward what has been achieved. There is a need to constantly innovate in today's politics. An organisation and its working style should change with the political situation, he reportedly said.
Briefing the media in the evening, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the BJP "maintained balance between rural and urban development, reform and public welfare, connection between defense and foreign policy".
He quoted party chief Amit Shah as saying that the victory in Assam had opened the "gateway to the north east" for the party.
Mr Shah, he said, expressed confidence that the party will return to power in UP in 2017 and the Centre in 2019 as well.
The Prime Minister had reached in Allahabad shortly before the conclave started and held a meeting with national office bearers to finalise its agenda. Mr Shah, too, attended the meeting.
The party is likely to finalise its strategy for Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and four other states - Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa. Om Mathur, PM Modi's key man in UP, told NDTV, "Many issues will be discussed at the meet but the main focus will be on UP polls due next year."
Sources in the BJP, however, say a decision on who will be the party's chief ministerial candidate in the two key states is not likely to be decided during this meet.
The conclave is likely to pass a political and an economic resolution, the latter focusing on agriculture. BJP leaders say they will also highlight the corruption in Uttar Pradesh under the ruling Samajwadi Party.
The BJP has brought several new faces to its National Executive -- including Himanta Biswa Sarma, who defected from Congress to BJP and played a key role in its big Assam win, and former Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, a new entrant to the party.
Several Congress workers, meanwhile, were detained today while trying to enforce a city-wide 'bandh' to protest against the BJP's celebration of two years of the Modi government.
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