BJP national president JP Nadda chaired a key meeting of the party’s general secretaries at his residence on Saturday. The two-day meet starting today was held to review the relief work done by party workers in the wake of the second wave of Covid-19.
Nadda began the day with planting a sapling in the presence of general secretaries of the BJP — Bhupender Yadav, C T Ravi, Dushyant Gautam, D Purandeshwari, Arun Singh, Dilip Saikia, Tarun Chugh, along with its general secretary (organisation) Santhosh and joint general secretary (organisation) Shivprakash on the occasion of the World Environment Day.
The focus of the meeting was on the party’s ‘Sewa Hi Sangathan’ programme, which aims to do welfare work in 1.33 lakh villages across the country. The party also discussed the roadmap ahead in terms of unlocking restrictions as people are resuming normal life again due to decreasing cases, post covid recovery and the fear of the upcoming third Covid-19 wave.
Top sources told CNN-News18 that the BJP leadership are pleased to see the approach of party workers to help people in crisis and the kind of outreach achieved across rural India.
According to the sources, the party’s Sewa Hi Sangathan program has reached 1,79,760 villages and 50,607 urban areas, including metropolitan, small cities and towns. The campaign was able to reach 2,30,367 wards in total.
As reported earlier by CNN-News18, on the seventh anniversary of the Modi-led NDA government on May 30, major blood donation camps were organised between 28 and 30 May. The drive aimed to collect 50,000 units of blood. However, by May 30, the saffron party collected 79,600 blood units.
More than 66,000 party workers also donated their blood during this campaign.
Another crucial aspect of the party’s welfare programme was the mass distribution of masks. Targeting the rural population, especially due to the lack of access to protective wear crucial in the fight against Covid, the party distributed 1.43 cr masks.
The campaign included the distribution of essential medicines, food items, dry ration kits for relatives covid-19 patients waiting outside hospitals and migrant workers. Party workers have also been involved in helping people get vaccinated by helping setting up inoculation camps, registration on CoWin app, transport facilities to vaccine centres, and distributing food packets at the centres.
The BJP said that while the Covid-19 cases have been decreasing since the second wave devastated the country, there needs to focus on ‘jaan’ (lives) and ‘jahaan’ (livelihood). The BJP leadership warned the party cadre not to panic and ensure they don’t let their guards down against the virus.
Nadda discussed three crucial points to focus on in the post-second wave case scenario: health infrastructure, revival of the economy and vaccine hesitancy. The BJP chief said there is a need to focus on building health infrastructure and training healthcare personnel and volunteers, especially in rural areas. On the volunteers, he said they provide a crucial bridge between public and healthcare systems and help avoid the spread of unnecessary panic. They can also guide people on other crucial aspects such as building immunity, correct lifestyle and focus on holistic well-being.
Secondly, Nadda laid importance on economic revival. The central government has introduced several schemes to ensure the public received some relief during the Covid crisis. These measures by various departments, including the finance ministry, includes free ration, two households under the PM Garib Anna Yojana. Further relief measures will be announced based on the situation, he added.
The third and the most important aspect, according to Nadda, was to remove vaccination hesitancy. Quoting the principles of Shri Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the guiding father figure of the Jana Sangh and BJP, Nadda said we must ensure vaccines is administered to the last person standing in the queue.
The meeting was the first in-person discussion of the BJP national office bearers held after the second wave of COVID-19. The party also discussed how the party fared in the assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
The party discussed its achievement in Assam, where the saffron party could come to power for a second time, despite the Congress-AIUDF alliance. On West Bengal polls, the party said that the party’s presence has grown multifold from a party with just three MLAs in 2016 to the current tally of 77 officials despite the results. The party hailed it as a big achievement despite the kind of aggression and violence that swept Bengal due to the TMC government. The BJP will make its presence actively felt in the next five years, it promised.
In Kerala, the BJP scored a zero. The party said there is a need to work harder and develop a good social combination for better results next time around.
The NDA has a strength of 22 in Puducherry, Nadda said it is crucial the government maintains a good performance in the union territory and help Puducherry develop with under support of the double-engine growth of both the Centre and the region.
The DMK and the Congress voted out NDA government in Tamil Nadu. However, the party said it was happy to have secured a 40 per cent vote and four BJP MLAs in the Tamil Nadu assembly. This also included their national woman morcha president Vanathi Srinivas who defeated the heavyweight Kamal Haasan’s first run as MNM party chief.
The discussions for tomorrow will focus on the party’s performance in these five states and preparations and strategy for assembly elections in big states like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and others seen as a semi-final to the 2024 general elections.
The battle for the year 2022 is extremely crucial for the BJP as it aims to win again the big state of Uttar Pradesh, where they scored a massive victory in 2017. Yogi Adityanath became Chief Minister Uttar Pradesh under crucial support since Varanasi is the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The other big state in focus towards the end of 2022 is the Gujarat election made extra crucial due to the government’s top brass: home minister Amit Shah and the Prime Minister hailing from the state…
The other crucial election states include Uttarakhand, where the BJP experience a bit of a hiccup recently amid the change in state chief ministers. The Himachal Pradesh polls will also be important as Nadda hails from the hill state. In the last assembly election, the BJP just about managed to scrape through and form a government because of the midnight intervention by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. The BJP will also be seeking a repeat term in the upcoming election in Goa with chief minister Pramod Sawant.
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