By PTI
NEW DELHI: BJP president J P Nadda on Wednesday lauded the party’s recent victory in a number of state and local body polls and set the target of “historic” wins in the next round of assembly elections, in an open letter to party workers to mark the completion of his first year in office.
Nadda, who had taken over from Home Minister Amit Shah on January 20 last year, also praised the party’s welfare work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the letter, the BJP chief slammed the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal as “dictatorial” and alleged that over 300 saffron party workers have been killed in the poll-bound state in the last few years.
He expressed confidence that ‘lotus’, the BJP’s poll symbol, will bloom there during the assembly elections, expected to be held in April-May.
He exhorted the party workers to ensure a historic win for the BJP in the next round of assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and West Bengal and play an important role in continuing the nation’s “vikas yatra” (development journey) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Under Modi’s leadership, the BJP has achieved victory in every election, he said, noting its impressive show in the Bihar assembly election and state bypolls in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Karnataka and Telangana.
He also cited local body polls in Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Ladakh and Hyderabad among others.
The BJP also “exposed the disinformation campaign of the Congress and its allies” on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, farm reform laws and the border row with China, he said.
Nadda said the BJP has set an unparalleled example with its welfare work for people during the pandemic while noting that the year was unprecedented in many ways.
The time was full of pain and hardships for humankind, but BJP workers followed Modi’s call of “seva hi sangathan” (organisation is for service) and served people across the country.
BJP workers provided food and ration to over 30 crore needy people, Nadda claimed, adding that India under Prime Minister Modi showed the way to the world in combating the pandemic.
“As a leading political party our goal is to win elections and work tirelessly for the goodwill and betterment of common people; but how a political party can effectively work as a potent tool of social service and help people in times of need, the world has witnessed an unmatched example of this through your service and hard work during the Corona pandemic,” he wrote.
The BJP had lost badly to the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi assembly polls last year, the first under Nadda, but has since then done well and continued with its expansion in regions where it had been traditionally weak.
Referring to Bengal, he said, “When a person like me, who is the National President of India’s largest political party and who is always covered with security personnel, had to face a murderous assault during daylight while on a visit to West Bengal, it can be well imagined how difficult it would be for a common BJP worker to work under such tough and demanding circumstances.”
His cavalcade was recently pelted with stones in the state, and the BJP had alleged complicity of the ruling party, a charge denied by the TMC.
Nadda said the kind of success the BJP got in the District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir, emerging as the single largest party, was possible “only due to the supreme sacrifices of our party workers and also their hard work and perseverance”.
