This Article is From Feb 11, 2014

For Narendra Modi's dinner in Delhi, the special is a pep talk for invitees

For Narendra Modi's dinner in Delhi, the special is a pep talk for invitees

FILE photo: Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi

New Delhi: Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, will host all the party's Members of Parliament for dinner today. On the menu is a pep talk.

The dinner party will be held at the BJP's headquarters in Delhi at 8 pm. The party has 117 Lok Sabha MPs, including president Rajnath Singh and top leaders LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj, and 47 in the Rajya Sabha.

Parliament is meeting for its last session before the general elections due by May. Party MPs are expected to go back to their constituencies and dive deep into election campaigning immediately after the session ends on February 20.

Mr Modi, who has been on a round of hectic electioneering across the country, is expected to brief the MPs and discuss campaign plans at the dinner today.

The BJP has recently launched several mega outreach programmes like the "one note, one vote" campaign which envisages reaching 10 crore people through a door-to-door campaign, where the participation of the party's legislators will be crucial.

Mr Modi will also kick off a "chai-pe-charcha" or "discussion over tea" campaign next week, which aims at connecting him and other BJP leaders directly with the electorate through social media and other means.

Most recent poll surveys have predicted a definite advantage for the Modi-led BJP in the forthcoming elections. But the party now also has to factor in the challenge planned by the rookie Aam Aadmi Party, which has said it will field candidates in more than 350 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats in the elections.

The BJP fears that Arvind Kejriwal's AAP could play spoiler for it in a number seats where voters are looking for an alternative to the Congress.

Mr Kejriwal and his team have repeatedly said that they discount the ruling Congress and expect the Lok Sabha battle to be fought between the BJP and AAP.
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