Lok Sabha Polls 2019: PM Narendra Modi to meet BJP parliamentarians for 11 days from today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarians in the last eleven days of December. The Prime Minister will meet them in groups and seek their suggestions for the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held next year. He is expected to touch upon the recently concluded Assembly election results, and throw light on the road ahead as the party gives a final touch to its campaign. The meetings are scheduled to begin from Thursday and each group will have 30-40 parliamentarians, according to sources. Uttar Pradesh is the only state whose MPs will meet the prime minister in three different groups which are divided into eastern UP, central UP and western UP, One India quoted a source as saying.

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“It has also been learnt that all these meetings will take place at the residence of one of the ministers in the Modi government on either lunch or dinner,” One India reported.

The meetings come against the backdrop of five state poll results handing the party its biggest electoral setback since it stormed to power at the Centre in 2014. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost power to the Congress in all three states - Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan - it ruled, and its ambition of emerging as a strong power in Telangana all but evaporated as its tally fell to one seat from the earlier five. 

The losses for the BJP in the three Hindi heartland states are a big blow to it as it had 62 seats of the 65 Lok Sabha constituencies there in 2014. A strong show in these states is a must for the party if it has to come anywhere close to its stellar performance in the last general elections when it won 282 seats of the total 543.

Earlier, BJP president Amit Shah called the Opposition 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) an illusion and said that BJP will retain power after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Speaking at the Republic Summit in Mumbai, Amit Shah had also said that he was sure that the Shiv Sena will be with the BJP in Maharashtra for the next Lok Sabha elections. Talks are on (with them), he added. "The reality of the Opposition 'mahagathbandhan' is different. It (the Opposition alliance) doesn't exist and is a 'bhranti' (illusion)," Amit Shah said. He said that he is confident that the BJP will gain in West Bengal, North-East and Odisha in 2019.