Party wants influencers in sectors such as education, health and business to sound off about their grievances, leaders say they’re all ears.
New Delhi: Gujarat elections over, the BJP has turned its focus to capturing power in southern India. With Karnataka going to the polls next year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a rally there on 28 January – the day the party’s ambitious Parivartan Yatre, flagged off in November by party president Amit Shah, comes to an end.
The third phase of the Yatre is set to begin on 7 January, and Union HRD minister and Karnataka state in-charge Prakash Javadekar is set to visit the state from 23-27 December to review the party’s standing in the Congress-ruled state.
Javadekar will also take stock of the party’s first-of-its-kind experiment in electoral politics – of crowdsourcing grievances from influential people, and documenting them to be used in its manifesto, as well as the poll campaign against Siddaramaiah’s government.
Unique experiment
To accomplish this, the BJP has drawn up a list of about 500 people — belonging to the education, health, social work, business, and trade sectors — who can influence voting preferences.
The BJP has begun organising one event per constituency to crowdsource the issues to be raked up during the campaign. The feedback from these events will help the party address relevant issues in its poll manifesto.
“This micro-management aims at crowdsourcing the key issues that could swing votes in the BJP’s favour. We are attempting to outmanoeuvre the Congress on its own turf by bringing disgruntled people on one platform, and giving them an alternative, where their demands can be heard,” said P. Muralidhar Rao, BJP national general secretary.
Sources say the party has decided to bring out a separate vision document-cum-manifesto for each constituency.
Mouth shut, ears open
Senior leaders say this is also the first time the party will not speak about the Modi government’s achievements at the Centre; instead, it will listen to the people.
According to Rao, the party will soon be holding events in all 224 assembly constituencies, where BJP leaders will listen to people’s demands that have not been met by state government.
“It will be the first time that we (BJP leaders) will not give speeches, but will listen to what people have to say. We are asking them to come forward with their routine issues, and bring the memorandums they had submitted to the state government, which were not entertained. This will all be recorded,” added Rao.
Senior leaders believe that the event will be widely publicised, just like the Parivartan Yatre, and will help them understand local issues better.
“The need to have people’s attention has prompted this exercise. People tend to take interest if someone is listening, and taking note of what they think are the issues in their locality. Thus, we have decided to find out what is on the people’s minds,” said a senior leader.