New Delhi: Often accused by the Opposition parties and former allies for ignoring the coalition dharma, the BJP, which recently held a meeting of the expanded NDA, will be holding cluster meetings and "sneh bhoj" for the NDA MPs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi starting from July 31.
The BJP has faced criticism for not reaching out to its allies and taking unilateral decisions on important issues within the NDA government, including during Parliament sessions. With the crucial Lok Sabha elections less than nine months away and the Opposition camp firming up its election strategies to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA, the BJP recently held a meeting of an expanded NDA to mark the alliance’s 25th anniversary. In a message to its opponents, the Prime Minister, in his address, hailed the NDA as a "time-tested alliance" and a "rainbow of regional aspiration".
These cluster meetings with the PM are a follow-up to the recent NDA meeting, where the PM specifically mentioned that the NDA is based on "coalition and contribution, not compulsions," and no party is big or small in the alliance. During the cluster meetings, the PM, it is learnt, will seek the views and suggestions of the MPs, including those of alliance partners, on issues related to the Central government.
These meetings are being seen as confidence-building measures by the BJP top brass ahead of the Lok Sabha polls as the loss of some key allies since 2019 and the Opposition camp's renewed efforts could dent its electoral prospects in some states.
For the cluster meetings, the BJP has deputed Central ministers and MPs to coordinate with MPs from both Houses of Parliament. On the first day of the meeting, on July 31, MPs from Uttar Pradesh (Braj, Kanpur-Bundelkhand and west regions), West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha will be meeting with the PM in two clusters. While BJP president J.P. Nadda and Union minister Nitin Gadkari will be present during the meeting of MPs from UP, Union home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh will be present during the PM's meeting with MPs from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. For the aforementioned meetings, the party has deputed Union ministers Sanjeev Balyan and B.L. Verma, Dharmendra Pradhan and Shantanu Thakur and host ministers for the respective clusters.
The second cluster meeting of MPs from UP (Kashi, Gorakhpur, and Awadh) and MPs from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep will take place on August 2. Union ministers Anupriya Patel and Mahendra Nath Pandey and Prahalad Joshi and V. Muraleedharan are the host ministers for these two clusters, respectively.
The parliamentarians from Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh will meet the PM on August 3. The representatives from poll-bound Rajasthan, along with those from Maharashtra and Goa, will meet on August 8.
The Members of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, where Assembly elections are due by the end of this year, along with Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu will meet on August 9. The date of the meeting of MPs from the Northeast is yet to be finalised.
Of the nearly 430 MPs who will be meeting the PM, most will be from the BJP.
