The ruling BJP on Saturday firmed up its political and electoral strategy, placing a national-level push for Gen Z outreach and Vande Mataram at the centre.The first meeting of the newly appointed national office-bearers of the party finalised a plan for active youth engagement, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent nudge to MPs and ministers to step up their social media presence.To this end, the BJP set up a team to expand youth engagement, with party chief Nitin Nabin, general secretaries Vinod Tawde and Smriti Irani, Gujarat Deputy CM Harsh Sanghvi and Chhattisgarh Minister OP Chowdhary as members. The group will factor in youth concerns and consider policy responses.Two more initiatives the BJP announced for youth today were the “National Innovation Challenge” to promote research and “Sewa Mein Mera Yogdan”, a campaign to encourage youngsters to participate in national initiatives such as cleanliness and fitness and posting of related social media reels. The party said it would arrange a platform to host reels.The meeting passed a resolution condemning the August 19 Congress Working Committee decision to sing only two stanzas of the national song. It invoked Mahatma Gandhi to frame Vande Mataram as an “anti-imperialist cry” that represents the national consciousness. Ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, the BJP will mount a pan-India offensive against the Congress on the issue of Vande Mataram.Talking about the resolution passed today, Nabin said the party would “expose the Congress for truncating the national song and mobilise people especially the youth on the issue”.“The BJP strongly condemns the decision taken by the CWC to reaffirm its 1937 resolution and restrict the singing of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at Congress programmes. A CWC resolution cannot override constitutional institutions or laws of the country, and a political compromise of 1937 cannot be elevated above the constitutional settlement of 1950 and legislation enacted by Parliament in 2026,” Nabin said, quoting the resolution, which accused the Congress of succumbing to vote-bank politics “as it did in 1937 under Muslim League’s pressures”.The BJP countered the Congress’ claim that Rabindranath Tagore had advised Jawaharlal Nehru to adopt the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram by citing Mahatma Gandhi’s description of the Song. “We pledge to recall and disseminate Mahatma Gandhi’s testimony that Vande Mataram had become an anti-imperialist cry and ‘the purest national spirit’,” the resolution read, adding that Gandhi’s remarks demonstrated the Song’s larger national meaning beyond the religious context of particular stanzas.PM Modi, who later met the new office-bearers at BJP headquarters here, also spoke of the need to uphold the honour of Vande Mataram. Modi lent voice to the BJP resolution.The meeting further firmed up plans to launch a month-long Seva Sankalp Abhiyan across India from September 17 to October 17 to coincide with the completion of PM Modi’s 25 years in public life as the head of the government. Modi took oath as Gujarat CM on October 7, 2001, and completes 25 years in public life this October.Under the month-long campaign starting on the PM’s birthday, the BJP will engage with four pillars that Modi says constitute the foundations of Viksit Bharat — women, youth, the poor and farmers. “We will reach out to 14 lakh anganwadi workers and honour their contributions; hold Seva Mein Mera Yogdan and Rashtriya Innovation Challenge for the youth and launch a 15-day Seva Setu Abhiyaan to ensure 100 per cent saturation of government schemes’ delivery. Those left out of government benefits will be covered,” said Tawde.The scheme saturation plan will especially focus on key interventions such as Kisan Samman Nidhi and PM Awas Yojana (rural and urban).Manpreet, Pathak at meetBJP national vice-president Manpreet Badal and former AAP MP-turned-BJP leader Sandeep Pathak attended the meeting chaired by Nabin on Saturday, along with other vice-presidents, including Vasundhara Raje and Ram Madhav, and general secretaries, including Satish Poonia, Smriti Irani and Biplab Deb.