DW BUREAU / shimla Eyeing polls, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Wednesday launched a one month long 'Chale Booth Ki Ore-Barae Jeet Ki Ore' campaign to mark the foundation day of BJP. Addressing a public meeting at Thunag in Mandi district, he said various events have been planned by BJP for the entire week starting from 6 April and would conclude with the commemoration of Ambedkar Jayanti on 14 April. He urged the party workers to come forward to ensure door to door campaign to educate the policies and programmes of the state government. He listened to the address of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to commemorate the party's Foundational Day along with the party workers at Thunag. He reminded people that it was in Thunag, the then National BJP President and present Home Minister Amit Shah, while campaigning for him in 2017 Assembly polls, had announced that once the BJP comes to power in the state the representative of this area would be given big responsibility. The Chief Minister said it was on this auspicious day that the BJP came into existence at Mumbai with former Prime Minister Bharat Ratan Atal Behari Vajpayee as its first President. He said that in 1975 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in the country, members of the Jan Sangh held strong protests against the Congress regime. He said that after the withdrawal of the Emergency, the Jan Sangh collaborated with a number of other parties and formed the Janata Party. While the BJP was formed on April 6, 1980, its ideological origins can be dated back to 1951 when Shyama Prasad Mukherjee formed the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, he added. Thakur said that the BJP was the largest political party in India, both in terms of representation in Parliament and in terms of party membership. He said that the Party has come a long way since its origins in the early 1980s. He said that the Party has overcome several obstacles and failures and at present formed a robust footing in the Indian political scenario and significantly overturned the ideological framework that drove India's national and international policies for a long time. The Chief Minister said that the BJP made a sweeping victory in general elections held in 2014 upholding Narendra Modi's image as its Prime Ministerial candidate. He said that in 2019 general elections again BJP swept back to power and it won 303 seats in the Lok Sabha, bettering the 282 seats they won in 2014 - a performance that not many thought was possible. He said that in the recently held assembly elections, out of the five states, the BJP emerged victorious in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Manipur. He said the BJP has completely rejected the politics of dynasty and family and was a common man's Party. He said Congress, on the other hand, was a party of a family and was almost breathing its last. He said that former Chief Ministers of BJP Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal worked tirelessly to strengthen the base of the party in the state. He said Himachal was fortunate to have a son of the soil as National President of BJP. (editor@dailyworld.in)