Hailing the BJP’s decisive electoral wins in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan as the outcome of “teamwork”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged party members Thursday to continue the teamwork to face future challenges, including the approaching Lok Sabha elections, sources said.
Citing data from recent election results, Modi, while addressing the BJP parliamentary party which met for the first time after the Assembly elections in five states, said the BJP has become the most trusted and preferred choice for the electorate in the country.
“An analysis of the poll data showed that of the 40 times that Congress state governments had sought the mandate to return to power, it could win only seven times. This means its success rate was 18 per cent. The BJP governments went to the voters for re-election 39 times and won 22 times, making the success rate 56 per cent. For the regional parties, it has been 18 of 36 times which means the success rate was 50 per cent,” Modi was quoted as saying at the meeting.
This, he said, shows that the theory of the BJP being robust at the Centre but weak in the states is wrong. The INDIA bloc leaders, he said, have been arguing that the BJP will not come to power in the states. He said the Congress could return to power for the third time only once out of seven attempts while the BJP could do it at least 10 of 17 times.
“The regional parties got such an opportunity 15 times but returned to power for the third time in a state nine times,” he said, adding that the BJP has returned to power seven times in states like Gujarat.
“This again proves that our policies are good and our intention is right,” he said, according to BJP sources.
Modi also cited a researcher’s observation that Madhya Pradesh had achieved development on different fronts whenever the BJP was in power.
“If you do an analysis of the Congress governments, or the regional party or the coalition governments, BJP has been the best performing party. People love its governance record, decision making and transparency,” he said, adding that the party has presented an alternate model not just to India but to the entire world with its Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas slogan.
“Anti incumbency is not applicable to us. And the real winner is the party karyakarta and our teamwork,” he said.
Earlier, he was welcomed at the meeting with a standing ovation and chants of “Modiji ka swagat hai”. He was felicitated by BJP president J P Nadda.
Sources said Modi told the MPs not to address him as Modiji or Adarniya Modiji because people know him as “Modi” and adding adjectives would distance him from people.
“I am a small karyakarta of the party and people consider me part of their family. Don’t add adjectives like Shree or Adaraniya because they know me as Modi,” he was learnt to have said.
Sources said he also underlined that his government’s focus on aspirational districts for development paid off in the electoral tests for the BJP.
“He pointed out that the BJP’s performance in these aspirational districts has been extremely good. Since it is leading to development of the area, we have to keep the focus on them. In fact, he said the last village (in terms of development) is his first priority,” said one of the MPs who attended the meeting.
Modi also asked the MPs to participate actively in the ongoing Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatraa programme to reach out to beneficiaries of government schemes, the PM-JANMAN programme for the particularly vulnerable tribal groups and extremely backward as well as the Vishwakarma programme.
