New Delhi. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (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 elections and preparations for the counting of votes on June 4. The meeting, chaired by BJP president J P Nadda, took stock of the current political situation after exit polls predicted a big win for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition ‘India’ alliance rejected these predictions after several meetings.
BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde told reporters here after the meeting, “A meeting was held to discuss and review the elections held in seven phases and the counting of votes to be held tomorrow was also discussed. Party national president J P Nadda chaired the meeting.” He said that the voting pattern observed during all seven phases of polling was discussed in the meeting. He said, “This was also reviewed.” Tawde said that the meeting was attended by BJP national general secretaries and secretaries and there was an in-depth discussion on the polling of all seven phases of the Lok Sabha elections and the deployment of party polling agents across the country for counting was discussed.
He said, “Polling agents should reach all booths on time, they should be properly deployed, there should be no problem in this – all these things were discussed.” He said that in the meeting it was also discussed whether there is any doubt about the counting of votes and if something like this happens then the party officials were asked to pay special attention to such a situation.
When asked if the meeting discussed plans to celebrate the BJP’s victory as most exit polls have shown the BJP getting a massive mandate for the third time in a row, Tawde said, “There has been no such discussion on this as of now. We take a call on it only after seeing the trends and not on the basis of exit poll estimates.” In response to a question about the discussion on government formation in the meeting, the BJP leader said that there was no discussion on this in the meeting.
He said, “In the meeting, only the election and voting were reviewed and arrangements for counting (deployment of party workers) were discussed.” It is understood that in the meeting, senior BJP leaders also discussed the party’s strategy to take on the opposition after the results, but no official statement has come from the party in this regard.
A BJP delegation had approached the Election Commission on Sunday and accused the Congress and its allies of trying to undermine the integrity of India’s electoral process. It had also requested the Commission to prevent any attempt of ‘violence and disturbance’ during the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections on June 4.
The ‘India’ alliance leaders have urged the Election Commission to ensure that postal ballots are counted and their results are announced before the EVM results are declared. The opposition alliance insisted that the Election Commission should issue clear guidelines on the counting process and ensure their implementation.