Five takeaways from key BJP conclave: Modi as poll mascot, Ram Mandir plank, slamming Cong, INDIA

The BJP’s two-day National Council meeting held in Delhi over the weekend marked the incumbent party’s move to lay out its roadmap for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections at the gathering of 11,500 party leaders and workers from across the country.

Aiming to return to power with an absolute majority for the third consecutive time, the BJP held the conclave of its top decision-making body to set the tone for the Lok Sabha polls which are less than two months away.

The focus of the BJP’s convention remained on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who dominated its proceedings and the speeches made by the party leaders besides the cutouts put up at its venue.

PM Modi added a dash of ideology to his desired figure of 370 seats that he set for the BJP, saying that each party worker should spend all his energies until the polls on this target. He said this was not just a number but a tribute to Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerji, who died in confinement in Jammu and Kashmir during his agitation for the revocation of Article 370, which gave J&K special status.

The Modi government scrapped Article 370 in August 2019.

The BJP’s National Council issued a detailed statement on the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, underlining the point that the party would have it as its key poll issue, even as it talked about the development work and welfare measures undertaken by the Modi government. It reflected PM Modi’s recurring pitch that development and Hindutva have to go together.

The convention also became a platform for unleashing a scathing attack on the Congress party as well as the Opposition INDIA bloc. Union Home Minister Amit Shah chose to attack the INDIA alliance, framing the upcoming elections as a battle between a democratic