Focus on Ram Mandir, YouTube Push & Selection Criteria for 2024: Shah-Nadda's Message to Bengal Cadre

Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir will be the fulcrum of BJP’s battle for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections if the meetings held by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda with the party’s cadre in Kolkata are any indication.

Sources told CNN-News18 that the BJP top brass has asked the social media team in the state to aggressively plug the Ram Temple movement in the run-up to the general elections.

Shah and Nadda held three crucial organisational meetings in Kolkata on Tuesday where they met the core committee, social media team as well as MPs and MLAs.

The gist of the leaders’ visit was that the mistakes of 2021 would not be repeated, and hence, some MPs may get dropped this time.

In their meeting with the social media team, the leaders asked the foot soldiers to aggressively push the Ram Mandir model online, focusing on the party’s success in delivering this electoral promise.

Confident that BJP would win more than 35 seats in Bengal, Shah also instructed the social

media team to help increase the subscribers to PM Narendra Modi, Nadda, and his own YouTube channels. Though PM Modi’s YouTube channel has over two crore subscribers, the team was told to work on pushing up the number, sources said.

The social media team should also work towards raising awareness about the Centre’s developmental schemes, Shah and Nadda said, adding that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would be implemented if the party came to power.

Corruption also figured on the BJP top brass’ agenda, with Shah saying: “The people of the country were expecting a change in West Bengal when Didi defeated the Communists here. However, now some even say that Didi’s rule pales in comparison to the Communist days.”

The cadre was motivated to work hard towards the 2024 goal, with the leaders reminding them how the party had grown from zero MLAs to 70 now.

Kalyan Banerjee’s mimicry of V-P Jagdeep Dhankhar and Mahua Moitra’s expulsion were also discussed in the meeting. Sources say Shah stressed that if BJP wins 35 seats from Bengal, PM Modi will make the state ‘Sonar Bangla’.