Indore: The BJP begins a three-day conclave
of its leaders from all over the country on the road ahead for
the party that has suffered two consecutive defeats in the Lok
Sabha elections and has seen a generational change at the top.
The National Executive meeting tomorrow and the National
Council on Feb 18 and 19, esssentially to formally ratify the
election of Nitin Gadkari as the party President, are
expected to provide an opportunity to the leaders to
introspect and think of the strategy ahead to make the
organisation effective and broaden the NDA.
This is the first meeting of the National Council after
the defeat in the May, 2009 Lok Sabha elections after which
dissent within the party grew and the RSS intervened to effect
a leadership change to the `GenNext`.
Since then, the BJP brought in 52-year-old Gadkari from
Maharashtra as the party President, the youngest to occupy the
post in the last 30 years since it was formed, and made Sushma
Swaraj and Arun Jaitley Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok
Sabha and the Rajya Sabha respectively.
The changes are being seen as a generational shift in the
major opposition with party veteran L K Advani, 83, being made
the Parliamentary Party Chairman, a move that indicates that
he has taken a backseat.
The emergence of Gadkari, Swaraj and Jaitley as the new
power trio has come at a time when the ruling Congress has
seen that a young Rahul Gandhi has come to the fore and become
the key leader in the ruling alliance along with Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
PTI
