Representatives of 18 political parties from 10 countries will meet BJP president JP Nadda, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar and Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Viashnaw in New Delhi on Wednesday to have a sense of the party’s election campaign strategies and the electoral process of India. The Indian Express reported on April 10 that the BJP had invited more than 25 political parties from various parts of the world, including the neighbourhood. The political party representatives are visiting India as part of the KNOW BJP programme launched by Nadda on the party’s 43rd foundation day in 2023. The parties that have sent their representatives are the Liberal Party of Australia; the Communist Party of Vietnam; the Awami League of Bangladesh; the Likud Party of Israel; the National Resistance Movement of Uganda; the Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania; the United Russia Party of Russia; the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and the United National Party of Sri Lanka; the Militant Socialist Movement, Mauritius Labour Party, Mauritian Militant Movement and Parti Mauricien Social Democrate of Mauritius; and the Nepali Congress, Janamat Party, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the Rashtriya Swatantra Party of Nepal. Significantly, neither of the two US parties – the ruling Democrats and the Opposition Republicans – was invited. A BJP leader explained, “For one, they are busy with their own presidential elections. Also, the US parties are not structured like parties in India or in some parts of Europe. In the US, for instance, a party worker may not know the name of his party’s chairman, because the system makes only the office of the president or the US Congress prominent.” No political party from Pakistan was invited, given India’s poor relations with the neighbouring country. The Communist Party of China was also not invited. The Opposition BNP in Bangladesh was not invited, as it has been linked with a recent “India Out” campaign on social media for boycotting Indian goods.
