Tamil Nadu BJP leaders to meet in Palani

Chennai: The BJP’s crucial state executive committee meeting will be held in the heritage town of Palani on June 24 and 25.

This highest decision-making body in the party will be meeting for the first time after the Assembly poll debacle and also with new office bearers in place.

The two-day meet will, according to sources, work out a strategy to face the local bodies elections and also gear up the party at grass root for the Lok Sabha election.

Surprisingly, the saffron party had fared better than all other political parties including the DMK and emerged second after the ruling AIADMK in the local bodies poll held in October 2011.  

Kanyakumari district, the land’s end emerged as the party’s stronghold and the party did perform well in capturing Mettupalayam municipality trouncing the Congress by a margin of over 2,000 votes, thus indicating its growing support in the western belt.

BJP could win four corporation wards, 37 municipal wards, chairmanship of two municipalities, and 13 town panchayats, 181 town panchayat wards, two district panchayat wards and 31 wards of panchayat unions.

In total, it has won 270 of the total 19,720 posts for which elections were held.
Though this was a good beginning after its severe drubbing in the 2014
Lok Sabha elections, the party however could not sustain is winning streak in the May Assembly elections.

Nevertheless, the party hopes to improve upon its performance winning more urban and local bodies this time. Interestingly, for the first time in the electoral history, many of the Dravidian parties including the DMK contested the local body elections without an alliance.