By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 13, 2017 : The Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] is looking at expanding its base in the eastern and southeast coastal region at its two-day national executive meeting beginning here on Saturday.

The BJP headed by prime minster Narednra Modi will compete three years in power on May 26 next and keeping the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in view, the party plans to expand to new areas where it does not have much presence.

The BJP did not do well in the eastern, coastal and the Coromandel region despite the Narendra Modi wave in 2014,. The party is also apprehensive that it might not be able to repeat its 2014 Lok Sabha success in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in 2019.

Party strategists feel that there will be some fall in numbers in these states in the 2019 elections. To offset these losses, the party has decided to venture into new territory. Party leaders consider Odisha as a gateway to its entire eastern and coastal area.

These areas include 25 seats of Andhra Pradesh, 19 of Kerala, 21 of Odisha, 39 of Tamil Nadu, 17 of Telangana, 42 of West Bengal, 40 of Bihar, 48 of Maharashtra and over a dozen states in other parts of the region. These areas cover over 200 seats.

Interestingly, these parts of the country are headed by regional satraps. They include TRS Chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, TDP President Chandrababu Naidu, DMK led by K. Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu, TMC Chief Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, JD-U led by Nitish Kumar and RJD led by Lalu Prasad in Bihar and BJD headed by Naveen Patnaik in Odisha.

Buoyed by its performance in the Odisha Panchayat polls, where it saw an upsurge in its base – graduating from the third to second spot in the state, party leaders selected Odisha for its National Executive meeting after a gap of 20 years, and are anticipating that by 2019 the party would gain top position in the state.

The meeting would be attended among others by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Apart from national executive members, senior BJP leaders like L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, party office bearers, MPs and MLAs would attend the meet.

During the meet, Modi will be felicitated by the National Executive for the party’s overwhelming performance in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assembly polls.

Modi and Shah will also express their gratitude to the people of Odisha for their support to the BJP in the panchayat elections.

Apart from passing resolutions for the upcoming Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, the party’s national executive will decide its strategy to build on its success in Odisha.

Modi is to felicitate members of 16 families associated with the Paika rebellion of 1817 during the meet. Paika rebellion is considered as the first armed mutiny against the British rule in the state. The move is expected to boost the BJP’s standing in the state.