As the elections draw near, the BJP leaders are suggesting ways to reach out to people. The BJP is likely to build on two diverse campaigns - Parliament action and social media - that has paid it dividends.
Speaking on the last day of the BJP national executive meeting, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj asked the party leaders to convey to the people the way the party built pressure on the government by stalling Parliament.
“Parliament is not just a debating club, it’s also a forum for taking on the government. The party leaders should counter allegations of the Congress that we are trying to disrupt the House. But this disruption had paid us the dividends as major corruption scandals got highlighted and probed, as it happened in the case of JPC on 2G,” a BJP leader said talking about her speech.
Sushma said that after the party stalled the House and asked for the resignation of two ministers - Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Bansal - that government was forced to take action. The party is again likely to gherao Parliament when the next session begins. Interestingly, Sushma, who was supposed to speak during the workers’ conference after the national executive meeting here, returned to Delhi. The meeting was addressed by Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, and Narendra Modi. Sushma’s early return led to rumours that she may have left owing to differences of opinion on Modi’s elevation. However, party leaders were quick to clarify that she returned as she had some work.
If Sushma suggested utilising Parliament to highlight the party’s campaign against the government, Jaitley spoke on means to harness the social media to reach out to maximum number of people. He enlightened the party leaders about necessity of using social networking sites like facebook, twitter and youtube.
Giving example of Modi’s speech at Delhi’s SRCC college, Jaitley said the event led to huge buzz in the virtual world. It led to discussion on Twitter, Facebook and was also watched by several thousands on Youtube.
“The most significant part of the event was that it did not cost the party anything. Where the government is spending `600 crore on publicity, the BJP can use such means to achieve greater publicity without spending anything,” a party insider said quoting Jaitley.