The BJP national executive on Tuesday unanimously extended the term of party chief J P Nadda, 62, till June 2024.
Announcing the decision of the party, Home Minister Amit Shah said that Nadda has “transformed the charismatic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi into a mandate for the BJP”. “Under him the BJP will get a stronger mandate in 2024 and Modiji will be Prime Minister again,” Shah said.
Addressing the media on Tuesday outside the NDMC Convention Hall, Shah lauded Nadda’s “tireless work” behind the growth of the BJP as an organisation. In the last one year, the party has extended its outreach programmes to 1,30,000 booths where it considered itself weak, he said.
Claiming that BJP is the “most democratic” party in the country, Shah said elections usually happen in the party from booth level to the national level, but with the ongoing membership campaign and due to the pandemic break, the process got delayed. “So, the national executive took up the matter. Rajnath Singhji moved the resolution and the national executive endorsed it unanimously,” Shah said.
Nadda took charge as the party president on January 20, 2020, and led the BJP during the pandemic time and launched a programme — Sewa hi Sanghatan — under which the party workers across the country got engaged in relief works and free ration distribution for the pandemic affected people. “Naddaji has connected the BJP with the concept of service with vibrancy,” he said.
Shah said the BJP won 73 Assembly bypolls out of 120 held during his tenure. It was under Nadda’s leadership that the BJP performed well in Bihar, and again formed the government in Maharashtra and Haryana, he added. The BJP won Assembly polls in Assam, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh during Nadda’s tenure as the party president, Shah said, adding that it also formed the government on its own for the first time in Goa.
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Crucial juncture for party
Talking about the recent victory in the Gujarat Assembly polls, Shah said that under Nadda’s leadership, the party converted Modi’s magical leadership into votes and the party registered a record-breaking victory by winning 156 Assembly seats.
The party has also grown strong in the Northeast. The BJP is in power in Assam, Tripura and Manipur as well as part of the ruling coalition in Meghalaya and Nagaland. Four northeastern states — Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram — are going to polls in 2023.
