Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will hold a strategy session with the BJP’s office bearers and senior leaders after the second phase of assembly elections in Gujarat ends tomorrow.
The session, sources said, will for the next round of assembly elections that will be held in 2023 — the crucial home stretch ahead of the 2024 and the general elections.
Among the states going to polls next year will be BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, which the party hopes to wrest from the Congress. The meet is also expected to discuss the roadmap for the next Lok Sabha elections, sources said.
The Prime Minister will fly to Delhi soon after casting vote in Gandhinagar to inaugurate the two-day office bearers’ meet. The party’s in-charge, co-in-charge, in-charge of fronts, organization ministers of all states will participate in the meeting, sources said.
Gujarat votes in the second phase of assembly elections tomorrow — 93 constituencies, covering the state’s central and northern regions, including the biggest city Ahmedabad and capital Gandhinagar, will go to polls.
In the run-up to the 2024 elections, winning a seventh consecutive term in Gujarat is crucial for the BJP, which has been ruling the state since 1995. The party has held a high-voltage campaign in the state spearheaded by PM Modi. Mr Shah, the party’s chief strategist, has set it a target of 140 seats — a tough ask in view of the 99 seats it currently rules.
The Congress, which won 77 seats in the last election, had held a low-key campaign this time. Rahul Gandhi, who led from the front in the 2018 election, is busy with the Bharat Jodo Yatra and could spare only one day to campaign in Gujarat.
Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party has pitched itself as the principal opposition to the BJP, with a high decibel campaign that banked on its governance model in Delhi and Punjab.