Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai)

Joint Oppn a sign of success for us: PM Modi to party

‘Ajay Bharat, Atal BJP’ to be new slogan

- Kumar Uttam

NEW DELHI: The coming together of opposition parties who do not see eye to eye, cannot tolerate each other and have no ideologica­l commitment to form a grand alliance is a vindicatio­n of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) success, and nobody, not even smaller parties, are ready to accept the leadership of the Congress party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.

Delivering the concluding address at the BJP’S national executive, Modi set the tone for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by coining the ‘Ajay Bharat, Atal BJP’ slogan to highlight what leaders described as the party’s commitment to its core values and the country’s progress.

Using ‘Atal’ in the slogan also tied in with the party’s efforts to perpetuate the legacy of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who died on August 16.

“They [grand alliance] have no leader, their policies are unclear, and their intent is corrupt,” the prime minister said, asking the party to expose the “lies, falsehood and misreprese­ntation” of the Opposition.

The media did not have direct access to the meet, and the details of the Prime Minister’s speech were given later by Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Before Modi, party president Amit Shah outlined the “mantra for victory” to the party, asking it to reach out to 220 million beneficiar­ies of the government schemes and 9 crore members of the party.

“If we win 2019, we are going to be in power for next 50 years. Nobody can remove us,” Shah said.

“Those who were failure in the government are failure in opposition, too. They have not raised real issues,” Prasad quoted Modi as saying.

He said the prime minister said that the BJP was ready for a debate if it was challenged on the issue of ideology or its performanc­e, but the Congress’s strategy was restricted to spreading falsehoods.which “need to be challenged with facts”.

Modi said while the BJP’S ideology remains firm, the strategy changes according to the situation, and spoke in detail about the grand alliance in the making, saying it comprises parties who have no ideologica­l bonding.

CONTINUED ON P 8

 ?? PTI ?? Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the BJP national executive meeting in New Delhi on Sunday.
PTI Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the BJP national executive meeting in New Delhi on Sunday.

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