National Convention: PM Modi says 'Kamal Ka Phool' the party's candidate for LS polls

New Delhi: Amid the BJP's ongoing National Convention in the national capital on Saturday, the party's national general secretary Vinod Tawde said national president JP Nadda delivered the opening address at the meeting while the key office-bearers also received certain instructions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing party leaders and charges at the convention, PM Modi said for the BJP, 370 was not just a figure that it should set sights on achieving in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections but it would be their way of paying tribute to saffron ideologue and one of the party's founders, Syama Prasad Mukherjee.

PM Modi, in his address to the party cadre, added that BJP's candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections was not a face but 'Kamal Ka Phool' (its symbol). He exhorted all party workers to put in the hard days for 100 days to ensure a thumping win for the BJP in the ensuing general elections, Tawde said.

Considering the 161 seats that the party lost in the last general elections despite key party leaders camping there under the Lok Sabha Pravas Scheme, the leaders have personally visited and weighed anchor in about 430 seats ahead of the general elections, Nadda noted at the convention, adding that he was confident that they party will come out winners in all these seats this time.

Further, it was decided that party workers would meet the beneficiaries of the central and state schemes run by the BJP.

The party will launch a nationwide campaign on February 25, with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections.

PM Modi said that the workers should work at the booth for 100 days straight and strive to win 370 more votes at every booth than last time.
He added that first-time voters should be made aware of the difference between the India before 2014 and the one after.

Prime Minister Modi said women are not just 'voters' for the BJP but are 'mothers and sisters' who would shower their electoral blessings on the party in the general elections in support and acknowledgment of the work done by the NDA government for them.

Tawde said the BJP-led central government has been working to drive the country forward on multiple fronts over the last 10 years, adding that while Prime Minister Modi has been holding a public office over the last 23 years (as Gujarat CM and at the Centre thereafter), there has not been a single allegation of corruption against him.

"We will convey the success we have achieved without a single taint of corruption or blame and by peddling a development-driven agenda," Tawde said.

Prime Minister Modi stated further at the convention that the Opposition would engage in more negative politics as the Lok Sabha polls near and raise more emotional issues to influence voters but the focus of the party's campaign will remain on the work done for the welfare of the poor, Tawde informed.