Till recently, the BJP high command was shy of flaunting them. Naturally so, as it had only three chief ministers. Of these, only one — Narendra Modi — headed a government in an important state, Gujarat. The other two — Arjun Munda and Manohar Parikar — headed governments in Jharkhand and Goa, respectively.Then the party’s fortunes turned. First, the BJP was gifted a government by a group of defectors led by Gegong Apang in Arunachal Pradesh. Then followed the party’s victory in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Unable to hide its glee, the BJP lost no time in getting all of them photographed with PM A.B. Vajpayee, Dy PM L.K. Advani and party chief M. Venkaiah Naidu. Consequently, we have this ‘‘happy family’’ glaring at the people from huge roadside hoardings from Delhi to Hyderabad, offering a tough competition to Amul advertisements.Therefore, in the fitness of things the party has decided to herd all its CMs together here on January 21. The agenda is to give a joint thrust to development ahead of Lok Sabha polls. The meeting will be addressed by Vajpayee, Advani and Naidu.According to BJP general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, all seven CMs have been told to present status reports on development projects undertaken by their governments and how Central assistance was being utilised for this purpose.At a time when the stated poll-plank of BJP is development, the effort is to give an edge to its campaign with inputs from its chief ministers.
