BJP national executive meet in Allahabad in June; PM Modi, Amit Shah to attend

ALLAHABAD: BJP is likely to sound the poll bugle in Uttar Pradesh from the land of the holy Sangam next month when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah and other top leaders would converge in the city to attend a two-day meeting of the national executive.

"BJP national executive is scheduled to hold its meeting here on June 12-13. Besides Modi and Shah, the meeting will be attended by all members of the national executive and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states across the country," UP BJP Chief Keshav Prasad Maurya told party workers here.

"Prayag is known as the land where the 12-yearly Kumbh attracts the largest crowds and we must make all efforts to ensure the success of the party's rajneetik kumbh, (political mega congregation) for which Uttar Pradesh has been chosen this time after a long gap," said Maurya, who represents Phulpur constituency in the Lok Sabha, which covers a major part of the city of Allahabad.

The development comes at a time when the BJP is gearing up for the high-stakes assembly elections in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, due in less than a year.

The party had suffered a steady decline in the state until a dramatic comeback in the last Lok Sabha polls.

After touching the rock bottom in the 2012 assembly polls, when it won only 47 seats in a 403-strong house, the BJP surprised all by emerging victorious in 71 out of the 78 Lok Sabha constituencies it had contested in UP.

The stupendous performance, which was also the BJP's best ever in the state, has been credited in a large measure to Modi's decision to step out of Gujarat and contest from Varanasi and the organisational skills of Shah who was the party's national general secretary in-charge of UP at that time.

Meanwhile, Shah is also likely to address a farmers' rally in Jhusi on the outskirts of the city on May 31, the party's city unit spokesman Devendra Nath Mishra said.