Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the BJP winning 370 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will be a tribute from the party to its founding ideologue Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, adding that ‘Kamal Ka Phool’ will be the party’s candidate in the general elections.

Addressing a meeting of the BJP’s national office-bearers at the beginning of the party’s two-day National Convention at Bharat Mandapam here, Modi said the party’s poll campaign for the general elections will be centred around themes of development and the welfare of the poor.

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BJP National President J P Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other senior leaders

attended the first day of the BJP National Convention. The saffron party’s national convention is being held to formulate a strategy to secure over 370 seats for the party in the Lok Sabha elections.

BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde told mediapersons that while guiding the party workers, PM Modi said the BJP will get 370 and NDA 400 (seats) in the Lok Sabha polls, where the 370 will not just be a number, “but a tribute from us to Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Our campaign will be centred around development, and the welfare of the poor and putting the nation at a place of pride in the world; we need to take these things to the people.”

Tawde said the Prime Minister told the party workers that during the Lok Sabha polls, the opposition will raise “unnecessary issues”, but we (BJP members and workers) will go to the people with issues of development work and poor welfare work and in this election the party will receive public blessings.

PM Modi, in his address to the party cadre, stressed that BJP’s candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will not be a face but will be ‘Kamal Ka Phool’ (the party’s symbol). He exhorted all party workers to work hard for 100 days to ensure a thumping win for the BJP in the ensuing general elections, Tawde said.

Considering that 161 seats that the party lost in the last general elections, despite key party leaders camping there under the Lok Sabha

Pravas Scheme, the leaders have this time personally visited about 430 seats ahead of the general elections, Nadda expressed confidence that the party will come out winners in all these seats this time.

The national convention decided that party workers will meet beneficiaries of the central and state schemes run by the BJP. The party will launch a nationwide campaign on 25 February, with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections.

PM Modi said the workers should work at the booth for 100 days straight and strive to win 370 more votes at every booth than last time. He said the first-time voters should be made aware of the difference between the India before 2014 and the one after.

The Prime Minister said women are not just ‘voters’ for the BJP but are ‘mothers and sisters’ who would shower their electoral

blessings on the party in the general elections in support and acknowledgment of the work done by the NDA government for them.

Tawde said the BJP-led central government has been working to drive the country forward on multiple fronts over the last 10 years,

adding that while Prime Minister Modi has been holding a public office over the last 23 years (as Gujarat CM and at the Centre

thereafter), there has not been a single allegation of corruption against him.

“We will convey the success we have achieved without a single taint of corruption or blame and by pushing a development-driven agenda,” Tawde said.

Modi said the Opposition would engage in more negative politics as the Lok Sabha polls come near and raise more emotional issues to influence voters but the focus of the party’s campaign will remain on the work done for the welfare of the poor, Tawde informed.

“In the coming time, self-help groups and NGO contact campaigns will be run on a large scale by party workers. Through these campaigns, information about the development work of the Modi government will be made available to large sections of the society,” the BJP National General Secretary further said.

He said ‘Karyakartas’ of the BJP have successfully helped in making each and every welfare policy of the government make an impact on the ground.

“Over 7.5 lakh villages have been covered under the ‘Gaon Chalo Abhiyan’ of the BJP. Notably, the Karyakartas of the BJP reached around 8.5 lakh booths also during this Abhiyan,” Tawde said.