NEW DELHI, June 3: Senior BJP leaders, including Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, held a meeting on Monday to discuss the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls and its preparation for the counting of votes scheduled to take place on June 4.
The meeting, presided over by BJP chief J P Nadda, was also learnt to have taken stock of the prevailing political situation following the exit polls predicting a big win for the BJP-led NDA, and the opposition INDIA bloc’s series of meetings rejecting the forecast.
“A meeting was held to discuss and review the elections conducted in seven phases and also to discuss the counting of votes which is to take place tomorrow. The meeting was presided over by party national president J P Nadda,” BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde told reporters here after the meeting.
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He said the meeting discussed the voting pattern observed during all seven phases of polls as to how polling took place. “This was also reviewed,” he added.
Tawde said the meeting, which was attended by BJP national general secretaries and secretaries, held an “extensive discussion” on all seven phases of the Lok Sabha elections and deliberated on the deployment of party’s polling agents across the country for counting of votes.
“That polling agents reach in time across all booths, their proper deployment, whether there is any problem in this – all these things were discussed,” he said.
The meeting also discussed if there is “any suspicion” over counting of votes anywhere and party office bearers were asked to pay “special attention” to such a situation, he said.
Asked if the meeting also discussed BJP’s plans for celebrating its victory with most of the exits polls projecting it to be getting a massive mandate for a third consecutive term, Tawde said, “There is no such discussion on this at present. We look into this only after seeing the trends, not on the basis of the exit polls’ projections.”
Replying to a query on formation of the party’s government, the BJP leader said there was no discussion at the meeting on it. “The meeting only reviewed the elections and voting and discussed arrangements and deployment (of party workers) for counting of votes,” he added.
At the meeting, senior BJP leaders are learnt to have also brainstormed over the party’s strategy to take on the opposition but there was no official word from the party in this regard.
A BJP delegation had on Sunday approached the Elections Commission, accusing the Congress and its allies of trying to undermine the integrity of India’s electoral process, and urged the poll body to prevent any attempts of “violence and unrest” during the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha polls on June 4.
Leaders from the INDIA bloc have urged the Election Commission to ensure that postal ballots are counted and their results declared before the outcome of the EVMs is announced, and stressed that the poll panel should issue clear guidelines on the counting process and ensure that those are implemented. (PTI)
