The BJP's first national council meet after its thumping win in the Lok Sabha polls will be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here Saturday to ratify the appointment of Amit Shah as party's new president.Preparations are on to host 2,300 delegates from across the country who will be arriving in the national capital for the day-long event.A close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah took over as the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) July 9 after his predecessor Rajnath Singh was appointed the home minister. Both, Modi and Shah will address the council.Shah is likely to pick a new team of party leaders after the event, sources said.According to political analyst G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, who is with the BJP, the 'energising' event will celebrate the phenomenal success of the party in the elections.
"In the last council meet, Modi laid the roadmap for the Lok Sabha elections and tomorrow is an occasion to reflect and rejoice the unprecedented success that the party achieved," Rao told IANS."But the party realises the responsibility that it has to shoulder for the next five years to ensure cooperation between leaders and to connect with the masses which the UPA failed to do," Rao told IANS.Hotels, guest houses and MP flats in the capital have been booked to host the delegates, said party leader and MP Ramesh Bidhuri, who along with Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay is responsible for organising the event."We've booked hotels in Karol Bagh and Pahar Ganj in addition to the flats of party leaders including MPs to host the guests," Bidhuri told IANS.
The national council includes parliamentarians, chief ministers and legislators of all states, as well as national and state party office bearers.Around 400 cars, all belonging to party leaders and workers, will be pressed into service to ferry the delegates, Bidhuri said."We won't be hiring any taxis," he said.Bidhuri further informed that eight committees had been formed by the state unit of the party to look after various aspects of arrangement like food, transportation, security, decoration, boarding and lodging etc.According to Moti Nagar MLA, Subhash Sachdeva, who is in-charge of the food at the stadium, a pure vegetarian menu consisting of north and south Indian dishes will be on offer."The food will be prepared fresh and hot inside the stadium and will consist of vegetarian north and south Indian dishes," Sachdeva told IANS.