New Delhi:
After a meeting of the BJP's top leadership yesterday that endorsed
Narendra Modi as the party's key strategist, it's action time now for the Gujarat Chief Minister. Mr Modi, who heads the party's election campaign committee, will address about 1,500 party leaders and workers in Bihar in a teleconference tomorrow.
Later this month he also visits Odisha and at the end of July will travel to Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, but his choice of Bihar as the launch pad of his election gameplan is significant.
The BJP was in power in the state till last month, when it was dumped by its senior partner, the Janata Dal United or JDU. For months, JDU leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had derided Mr Modi, always without naming him, for being a divisive leader and failing to check the riots in Gujarat in 2002 in which hundreds of Muslims were killed.
The break-up was caused by Mr Modi's selection as campaign-in-charge of the BJP. But for years before this, the JDU had banned Mr Modi from campaigning in Bihar, a writ the BJP had accepted.
The agenda for Thursday's meeting of the parliamentary board and then a review of ideas collated by party general secretaries, was to develop strategy for elections, first in important states like Delhi, and then for the central government.
To ensure that all top leaders remain committed and accountable, Mr Modi has reportedly turned the team of the party's general secretaries into his campaign committee.
At the parliamentary board meeting, Mr Modi was seated next to LK Advani - a tactical seating plan to suggest that their rift has ended.
Mr Advani had quit all his party posts last month when Mr Modi, who is the Chief Minister of Gujarat, was chosen to head the BJP's election campaign. The 85-year-old rescinded his resignation a day later, in truce crafted by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, which is the BJP's ideological mentor.