Among the few states which Nadda has so far not visited are Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir.
NEW DELHI: The 2024 May elections are still a good 18 months away and yet BJP national party president Jagat Prakash Nadda has visited 22 states, many of them multiple times, to conduct political meetings and interactions with party workers since the start of this year. One of the aims of these tours, which virtually cover all the four corners of India, is to keep taking ground information from the state functionaries and other members of society who are not a part of the BJP. A similar fact-finding exercise that was recently carried out by Union ministers in Bihar to gauge the public mood has revealed that there is a strong anger against sitting BJP MPs, including present and former Union ministers. These visits have come even as Nadda’s tenure nears its end with strong speculation in BJP circles that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and the RSS leadership are mulling extending his tenure till May 2024. His first visit in this year was to the election-bound Uttar Pradesh where he addressed public rallies in Lucknow and Basti on 3 January. This was followed by Secunderabad, Telangana, where he participated in a candle light rally on 4 January.
Then in February, he did multiple rallies and events in Goa, which was followed by multiple political rallies in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur. All these states went to the polls in that month.
In April, he went to his home town in Himachal Pradesh for a four-day political visit. This was followed by political events in Gujarat. Both these states go to the polls in November.
In May, Nadda headed for Mahbubnagar, Telangana, which was followed by a political rally in Kozhikode, Kerala. He also again visited Himachal Pradesh for a political road show. In the same month, he did multiple political events at Ludhiana, Punjab, which were then followed by his participation in social events in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
In the next month, he held a meeting with party functionaries in Bhopal and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh which was followed by a political event in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. He also went to Ranchi, Jharkhand, on 5 June to attend political rallies. In the same month, he drove down to Gurugram, Haryana, to interact with party leaders and workers. Days later, he flew to Kolkata, West Bengal, to participate in a party meet. On 18 June, he went to Chitradurga, Karnataka, to take part in a political event.
In July, he went to Patna, Bihar, for two days of political events. Nadda then again took a flight to the South and attended multiple political events at different places in Andhra Pradesh in August last week. This was followed by multiple political events in Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
On 28 and 29 August respectively, he came back to Delhi and then attended similar party programs in Tripura and Assam. Earlier this month, he went to Kurukshetra, Chandigarh in Haryana and Raipur, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu within a span of one week to interact with party leaders, workers and speak at public rallies. He has also done multiple political events in Delhi, where he resides.
Among the few states which Nadda has so far not visited are Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir.