The BJP national executive meeting will be held on January 16 and 17 in Delhi to design a strategy for the upcoming state elections, take stock of preparations for the Lok Sabha polls in 2024 and decide on the extension of the term of party president J.P. Nadda.

Nadda’s three-year term will expire later this month and he is likely to get an extension till the Lok Sabha polls, according to party leaders.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah are known to be comfortable with Nadda and don’t want any change ahead of the 2024 polls, sources said.

The focus of the national executive, however, would be the elections in nine states this year as the results would set the stage for the Lok Sabha polls in which Modi will seek a third straight term as the Prime Minister.

Apart from four states in the Northeast, an ideologically important region for the saffron party, elections will be held in key BJP-ruled states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

The four Northeast states due for polls early this year are Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram.

“Besides extending Naddaji’s term, the meeting will concentrate on preparing the strategy for the state elections with a focus on Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh where the party faces major challenges,” a BJP leader said.

All the key leaders from Karnataka, where the election will be held before May this year, are likely to participate in the meeting to present a report on poll preparedness.

According to BJP leaders, there is popular opinion against the incumbent Basavaraj Bommai government apart from factional fights within the party.

“Karnataka is the only south Indian state where the BJP is in power. The party can’t afford to lose it in the runup to the Lok Sabha polls,” one Karnataka Lok Sabha MP said, hoping the central leadership intervenes to ensure that the rivalry among state leaders doesn’t hamper the party’s performance.

The meeting will also take stock of the party’s strategy in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, due for polls at the end of this year. While the BJP rules Madhya Pradesh, the Congress is in power in the other two.

Like Karnataka, ground reports in Madhya Pradesh are not encouraging, BJP leaders said.

Telangana will also go to the polls this year and the BJP is planning to beat the Congress and emerge as the principal challenger to the ruling TRS. The meeting will discuss the party’s activities, with the target being an increase in the Lok Sabha tally from Telangana.

“All the nine states going to polls this year are important for us. Barring just two states (Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh), the BJP and its allies are in power in all others,” a BJP leader said, stressing that the party will aim to win all of them to “demoralise the Opposition” ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

The broader focus of the meeting, however, is likely to be Modi’s address in the concluding session, with party leaders hoping that his guidance would be the crux of the two-day discussions.