NEW DELHI: The BJP is putting systems in place to counter any complacency that may have crept in during its transition from an opposition in agitation mode to the power-enjoying ruling party. In a series of meetings chaired by party president Amit Shah in the last a few days—including with state core groups, Rajya Sabha MPs and party CMs and some being held in the coming days such as the coordination meet with the RSS and the national council meeting—the key has been that party functionaries take more responsibilities. The party also wants cadres to organise programmes to keep them engaged.
All the eight party general secretaries and four joint secretaries have been assigned three states each, apart from their existing responsibilities, to look after the organisational work and party programmes, meet key leaders in states and check if programmes are followed right up to the booth level. “After three months, we will be assigned another three states, and so on. This way, all the general and joint secretaries will cover all the states in the next few months, thus acquainting themselves with the entire country,” a party general secretary said.
In another responsibility, Shah has asked all the state core groups to meet at least once a month to chalk out party programmes and assess the political situation. “A core group is a body of different office-bearers. Shah has suggested that there be around a dozen members comprising state party presidents, ministers, MPs, former CMs and other party leaders. This will also strengthen collective leadership,” a senior BJP functionary told The Sunday Standard, adding that core groups existed but now they are being institutionalised.
Another initiative is to keep the cadres occupied in one massive programme or the other without much gap. “After Vikas Parv and Tiranga Yatra, BJP cadres will be involved in programmes to celebrate and take forward Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s ideology. The year-long programme will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 25 during the BJP’s national council meeting in Kozhikode, Kerala,” another party general secretary said.
All BJP Rajya Sabha members have been asked to look after a Lok Sabha constituency each, in which the BJP could not win the last elections. Shah has also identified 115 non-BJP Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and northeastern states, which the party will target in 2019.
A BJP leader said: “When we were in the Opposition, we held protests against the government to keep the cadre engaged. After becoming the ruling party, a need was felt to keep them engaged, so that they were not disenchanted with the party.”
Every booth level committee has been given six programmes to organise, and the BJP will keep the 11 crore workers it enrolled on their toes before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.