Prime Minister Narendra Modi drove to the BJP headquarters on Friday evening to address an election strategy meeting where, sources said, he virtually sounded the bugle for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

At the closed-door meeting, Modi is learnt to have exhorted party leaders and cadres to hurl themselves into the electoral battle, now just months away. Sources said the BJP plans to announce its candidates even before the Election Commission unveils the poll schedule.

Modi had earlier this week told party MPs at a meeting that next year’s general election would leave the Opposition further shrivelled. He told them to go out among the people and expose the “INDI Alliance’s disruptive politics” and its alleged efforts to “block the country’s rise”.

Modi’s address to the BJP’s national-level officials on Friday comes a day after the early conclusion of the winter session, which saw the government virtually bulldoze the Opposition out of the two Houses and get contentious bills passed by voice vote.

These legislations include three criminal law bills and another that bypasses a constitution bench ruling to exclude the Chief Justice of India from the panel that picks the chief election commissioner and election commissioners.

With a record 146 Opposition MPs suspended from both Houses, the bills had a smooth sailing. The MPs were suspended for “compromising Parliament’s dignity” with their vociferous protests demanding a statement from home minister Amit Shah on the December 13 breach of Parliament security.

A buoyant BJP has scaled up its aggression since the runaway Assembly poll victories in three heartland states, steamrollering a somewhat deflated Opposition to try and consolidate the perception of Modi’s “invincibility”.

Party sources said that at Friday’s meeting, Modi said BJP leaders and cadres should use the ongoing Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to take the party’s campaign across the country.

The Yatra, launched in mid-November and scheduled to conclude on the eve of Republic Day, ostensibly aims to “saturate” the government’s welfare schemes by taking them to doorsteps via “Modi Ki Guarantee Wali Gaadis (Modi’s Guarantee Vehicles)”.

However, many see it as the virtual launch of the BJP’s Lok Sabha poll campaign at government expense.

The BJP has prepared a duty roster for Union ministers and party MPs to welcome the Modi’s Guarantee Vehicles at specific Lok Sabha constituencies as part of the poll campaign.

Among the senior ministers so tasked are Nirmala Sitharaman (finance), Hardeep Puri (petroleum), Piyush Goyal (commerce), Bhupendra Yadav (environment), Giriraj Singh (rural development), Jyotiraditya Scindia (civil aviation) and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Jal Shakti).

“Modi Ki Guarantee” had been the BJP’s catchline during last month’s state polls. With the party sweeping Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, it is shaping up as the party’s prime slogan for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“Modi’s Guarantee Vehicles will become the guarantee for the country’s success. This too is a guarantee from Modi,” the Prime Minister had said in an address to party cadres after the Assembly poll victories.

He had claimed that the Assembly poll “hat-trick” in the heartland had provided the “guarantee of a 2024 hat-trick” (in national elections).

Next summer’s general election will see Modi try to equal Jawaharlal Nehru’s record of winning three straight national mandates.