BJP has started a drive to publicise the four-year-old Modi government’s achievements and familiarise people with the work the party and government has done.
Mumbai: What do former cricket captain Kapil Dev, actor Madhuri Dixit, industrialist Ratan Tata, yoga guru Baba Ramdev, former Army chief Dalbir Singh Suhag, former Chief Justice of India RC Lahoti, and former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash Kashyap have in common?
They all have a book and a pen drive detailing the work of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government and a smiling picture with the BJP president.
The personalities form the creamy layer of the BJP’s recent ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ programme, a drive to publicise the achievements of the NDA government after its four years in power by meeting opinion makers across the country.
Shah, who plans to reach out to 50 key personalities as part of the drive, started his visits from 29 May.
Shah’s office prepares a list and makes appointments with such personalities after which the BJP leader visits their homes, spends about half an hour explaining the NDA government’s work and the party’s vision, and gives them literature detailing the Modi government’s achievements.
On Wednesday, Shah visited the homes of Dixit and Tata in Mumbai. While he was also scheduled to meet singer Lata Mangeshkar, she called off the appointment citing poor health.
“Although these personalities are not directly related to politics or engage in political activities, they still influence people. We count them as opinion makers in the society. The idea is to establish the BJP’s relationship with these people and familiarise them with the work that the party and the government is doing,” said BJP Maharashtra spokesperson Madhav Bhandari.
Besides personalities across sectors, Shah also plans to meet leaders of NDA allies such as Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray and Shiromani Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal.
Not just the chief
Bhandari said the outreach drive is not limited to the BJP president’s activities alone.
“Amitbhai is the national president, so he has been interacting with some of the most high-profile names. But the programme is not restricted to this alone. Every public representative of the BJP, right to the corporator, has been asked to identify such influential personalities across sectors in their areas and spread the word about the Modi government’s work,” he said.
Manisha Chaudhary, a BJP MLA from Mumbai’s north western suburb of Dahisar, said she has been given targets too.
“I am meeting architects, buildings, doctors, lawyers, domestic workers, fisherwomen and several other groups as part of the drive,” she said.
Chaudhary, who said the drive will be on till 20 June, explained the routine. “I make a powerpoint presentation of the BJP government’s achievements to them and hear their suggestions and issues. Like today, I am meeting representatives from the diamond industry.”
Overall, as part of the ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ programme, 4,000 leaders picked by the BJP will get in touch with one lakh influential names across the country from different sectors and talk up the Modi government’s work. Besides, the party has asked 50 lakh of its workers to go door-to-door.
The party has introduced a ‘Sampark se Samarthan’ module on the NaMo app from where BJP workers can share a bunch of videos and infographics about various initiatives of the government with people they are meeting. They can also record the names, contact details and feedback of the people they meet.