NEW DELHI: Tweaking its strategy for effective voter outreach ahead of the Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has resolved to hold ‘small’ public meetings, as opposed to sizeable public gatherings. The meetings, most of which would be held in unauthorised colonies, would feature the party’s national leaders.
In a departure from practice, the party will focus on organising street-corner meetings, with attendees numbering between 300 and 500, a party leader said.
“It has been our experience that small gatherings are more impactful than rallies featuring 1,000 people. It becomes a bit difficult to continue the momentum after holding a mega rally or two. Given the massive electoral groundwork involved, our aim would be to hold small meetings for ‘target’ groups,” said an office-bearer of BJP, who is privy to the party’s electoral plans.
BJP president Amit Shah, addressing a gathering of booth level workers at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Sunday, urged his party colleagues and workers to hold group meetings at the mohalla level to raise awareness about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
Shah said he would attend those meetings as well. Later, he went to south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar to kick off the party’s 10-day door-to-door campaign.
The party had planned more such events as part of a concentrated grassroots canvassing in unauthorised colonies and slum clusters to publicise its announcements — ownership rights to property holders in unauthorised colonies, the ‘Jahan Jhuggi, Wahan Makaan (House in place of shanty)’ initiative and redevelopment of Jhuggi-Jhopri (JJ) clusters.
Senior party leaders, including union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Hardeep Singh Puri, as well as Delhi MPs, have been holding such meetings in unauthorised colonies.
According to another leader, in while Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be leading the campaign, Shah may address around 20 such neighbourhood meetings.
‘BJP scared of films’
Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia on Friday said it was disgraceful to see the BJP being intimidated by films based on a social issue. Sisodia was commenting about various BJP leaders announcing that they will boycott the Deepika Padukone-starrer ‘Chhapaak’, on the life of the acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal.
‘Edu model replicated’
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also said that it was his government’s targeted initiatives that ushered in significant changes to the prevailing academic infrastructure in government-run schools. He said the AAP’s education model has been replicated in other states