BJP to get a new address in Capital

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has bought land to establish offices in around 250 organisational districts out of 525, said party president Amit Shah during the foundation stone laying ceremony for the BJP’s new office complex in Delhi on Thursday.

The office will have state-of-the-art communication facilities and a huge library. It will be connected to every mandal office, Shah said.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled how much the BJP had sacrificed, especially in eastern India, during elections. No one was ready to give office space to the BJP to setup its election centres, such was the terror of political groups in West Bengal. But, despite such adversity, the BJP was a model of an alternative to a family-led and administered political grouping that was run on the organisational principles of transparency and simplicity. Modi named L K Advani and A B Vajpayee among the galaxy of leaders of the party who had created the institutional structure on which it stood and said the party offered a way of thinking and a way of life, not just alternative politics.

Asserting that the BJP has made more sacrifices than any other party, Modi said fissiparous forces have become more active as the country’s strength has grown and it is now imperative to ensure that society is strengthened and becomes more harmonious.

Underlining the BJP’s commitment to take everybody along with the motto of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikaas’, he asked party workers to present to the country and the democratic world an example of how a party “devoted to ideals and devoid of dynasty” functions as the world knows the saffron outfit “not the way it is, but based on hearsay”.

Modi said candidates of no other party would have forfeited more deposits than those of BJP, as they kept fighting for their ideology irrespective of the results. Shah, the man who has overhauled the functioning of the party, said its organising principles celebrated India and its nationhood. A party that began with 10 people, now has over 110 million members. It is present in every corner of India, has 1,000 representatives in state and central legislatures, heads many state governments and the government at the Centre.