New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh BJP is taking a leaf or two from the party’s winning Gujarat formula to boost the morale of workers and beat anti-incumbency ahead of the assembly elections, which are less than six months away. This includes distributing identity cards to its 38 lakh registered workers and establishing ‘panna (page) committees’ to micromanage the electoral rolls.
To infuse even more energy into poll preparations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself will “motivate” 10 lakh workers in MP capital Bhopal during his visit to the state on 27 June, party sources said.
“We have verified the addresses and phone numbers of 38 lakh karyakartas and registered them on a digital database,” said VD Sharma, state BJP president, speaking to ThePrint.
“Workers would earlier complain they faced validation issues in different places. But now, we are empowering our foot soldiers with pahchan patra (identity cards), like professionals in other fields. This will not only strengthen their bond with the party, but also motivate them to work tirelessly,” he said.
Out of this army of workers, the MP BJP has 9.5 lakh booth committee presidents and members, along with 16 lakh “panna pramukhs” who oversee one panna, or page, of the voters’ list. The MP unit is now expanding this structure to include a dedicated page “committee” for each panna. Each committee member will focus on persuading a specific set of voters to support the BJP. Typically, each page contains 30-40 voters.
This strategy is credited to Gujarat BJP president CR Patil who is said to have put in place no fewer than 82 lakh page committee members in the state. Equipped with ID cards, these dedicated influencers played a crucial role in securing a historic mandate for the BJP in Gujarat last year. The party won 156 of 182 seats— surpassing the previous record of 149 seats set by the Madhav Singh Solanki-led state Congress in 1985.
In MP, the distribution of the identity cards to karyakartas has started in Budhni and Khajuraho, the respective constituencies of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and VD Sharma.
The party plans to provide identity cards to all other panna pramukhs, booth presidents, and other members before the assembly polls.
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One card, many goals
Fatigue among BJP workers due to a lack of coordination between the government and the party is a significant concern in the upcoming assembly polls, party sources said. They have high hopes that distributing cards and giving workers roles and goals will help offset this and enhance overall unity.
The BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003— bar when the Congress formed a short-lived government in December 2018 — with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan currently serving his fourth term.
Despite facing anti-incumbency sentiments, the party aims to turn the tide in its favour in the November election through a robust organisational setup and by associating CM Chouhan’s image with welfare measures.
The “empowerment” through ID cards is expected to facilitate the karyakartas’ efforts to draw more beneficiaries to government schemes.
“Such cards aid identification and empower ground workers. When authorities require identification, cardholders can present them,” state BJP vice-president Bhagwandas Sabnani told ThePrint
“These ID card-holding workers will assist in enrolling beneficiaries in government schemes within villages, ensuring that the party gains a foothold in every nook and corner of their respective booths. This, in turn, will encourage more people to become members of the party,” he added.
Sabnani noted that the legitimacy accorded by being recognised, card-carrying members would further increase the workers’ “emotional bond” with the party.
A former MP minister and senior leader of the state unit also said that the ID cards were expected to buoy the spirits of cadres.
“The Madhya Pradesh BJP has been one of the strongest organisation units of the party in the country. Prominent leaders like Vajpayee, Vijaya Raje Scindia, Sunderlal Patwa, Kailash Joshi, and Kushabhau Thakre, who later became BJP president, have all worked in Madhya Pradesh. However, since the party has been in power in the state for the last 20 years, some anti-incumbency sentiment has naturally developed, and workers have grown fatigued,” he said.
“To counter this, the party must motivate the ground workers before the polls. This step will be instrumental in boosting their motivation,” he added.
Modi boost
The former minister claimed that PM Modi was expected to play a key role in motivating workers during his visit to the state on 27 June.
“The Prime Minister will address 10 lakh workers at a rally in Madhya Pradesh,” he said.
A part of a month-long drive to mark the completion of nine years of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) central government, Prime Minister Modi’s visit to MP will also see him flagging off five Vande Bharat Express trains.
Additionally, Modi will meet 3,000 vistaraks (booth workers), selected through the NaMo app. These workers will stay in various election-bound states, including MP, to train booth workers before being deployed to their assigned Lok Sabha constituencies.
BJP president JP Nadda, who is already in Madhya Pradesh, interacted with the selected 3,000 “vistaraks” Monday.
CM Chouhan, too, is actively engaging with district presidents and core committee members to motivate them, reduce infighting, and foster better synergy in the state unit.
How ‘Gujarat formula’ helped BJP
Gujarat BJP president, CR Patil, successfully implemented the panna pramukh (page chief) model ahead of the previous Lok Sabha elections, wherein one person was assigned to manage one page of the voters’ list.
In the 2019 LS elections, he also tried out another model in his constituency Navsari. In this method, each voter page was managed not by one ‘chief’ but by an entire committee of five or six people, each tasked with persuading their relatives and close associates to vote for the BJP. He won by a landslide, registering the highest margin— almost 6.9 lakh— in that election.
The page committee method subsequently was deployed on a large scale for the Gujarat civic polls in 2021 and the assembly election in 2022.
Patil had earlier told ThePrint that the Gujarat unit plans to employ the page committee strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well, where it has set an ambitious target of winning all 26 seats in the state by a margin of five lakh votes.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)