BJP's Mahila Morcha chief to visit West Bengal for preparatory meeting

NEW DELHI: BJP Mahila Morcha National President Vanathi Srinivasan, will be visiting West Bengal on February 24 for a preparatory meeting, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's is likely to visit the state on March 6 and address a women's programme in Barasat, said a BJP source.

The choice of venue for PM Modi's address to women across the nation gets significant, as West Bengal's Sandeshkhali, 82 kilometres from Barasat, has been on the boil over the past few weeks after hundreds of women protested against the TMC' leader Sheikh Shahjahan, who is the prime accused of alleged sexual assault and violence case against women in the area.

Leaders of the women's wing said that they were given a target of reaching out to 1 crore SHGs. "The party is building a focus Self Help Groups and through the campaign, we reached out to over 1 crore women and engaged in SHGs," Mahila Morcha president Vanathi Srinivasan, told ANI.

Srinivasan, said that PM Modi's rally will be telecasted by women's wing at mandal-level.

Determined to secure the maximum number of seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's target of 370-plus for the party and '400 paar' (beyond 400) for the NDA, the BJP has set sights on 'GYAN' to bring home the desired electoral harvest.

A term coined by PM Modi himself, 'GYAN' refers to 'Garib' (poor), Yuva (youth), Annadata (farmers), and Nari (women).

Earlier, in a rousing address to cadres at the party's national headquarters in Delhi after it swept the heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, PM Modi listed poor, youth, farmers and women as the only four castes in the country as he underlined his welfare pledge going into the general elections.

On how the party plans to carry forward its outreach towards 'GYAN', a top BJP source told ANI on Thursday that the party was focusing on the upliftment of all four sections of the country's population.

Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and BJP national president JP Nadda will hit the ground running and campaign extensively as part of efforts to reach out to these four sections.

At the recently held BJP national convention, all programmes pertaining to the party's poll outreach until March 10 were fleshed out and discussed.