BHOPAL: Often credited as 'masters' of electoral politics, the BJP leaders and workers in Madhya Pradesh have undertaken a unique roadmap to woo young voters - especially an estimated 80 lakh first time voters.
"In February this year, we organised a unique competition among the youngsters with the involvement of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and RSS and the winners were rewarded in the form of 'Coffee with CM (Shivraj Singh Chouhan)," Madhya Pradesh BJP general secretary V D Sharma told UNI here.
Three batches of 56 youngsters have been given this 'facility' and the message has gone down well with the generation next, he said.
Mr Sharma said a unique competition was organised across the state by state unit of BJP in coordination with the ABVP and RSS wherein at least 30 lakh young and first time voters participated.
"The competition was on general awareness of various developmental schemes and the transformation brought about by the BJP government in last 15 years in the state.
Madhya Pradesh has come a long way from its BIMARU category image and many youngsters do not know about certain ugly facts of recent past," he said.
In the process, booklets and other literature were circulated on various schemes launched by the BJP government and the massive transformation brought in socio-political realm by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, party sources said.
In this context, BJP state unit president Rakesh Singh, also a sitting MP, told UNI, "The moment Congress leaders make tall claims of their work, we do remind them of pre-2003 days when Madhya Pradesh did not have roads and only seven lakh hactres of land were irrigated.
Today we have state highways across the state and 40 lakh hactres of land are irrigated.
The youngsters also need to know and it is our job to make them know.
"The BJP is in power in the central Indian state for last 15 years and is facing a tough challenge from Congress this year especially owing to anti-incumbency mood and also large scale farmers' distress and bothering issues like unemployment.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan is also under flak as the BJP regime also got embroiled in high-profile Vyapam corruption scandal.
Chief Minister's detractors, such as state Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi has said that the BJP and the chief minister have only "blown out of proportion" his image as a performer 'Mamaji (uncle)' and that "he is not an able administrator at all".
The BJP too realises the impact of challenge this year could be more.
BJP chief Amit Shah has changed state unit BJP chief replacing Nand Kumar Chouhan by Lok Sabha MP Rakesh Singh.
He has also constituted a campaign committee headed by Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who incidentally was state BJP president in 2013 and 2008.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan was once an Uma Bharti loyalist and later fell apart too.
In order to fight anti-incumbency, new state unit chief Rakesh Singh and Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar have already suggested that nearly 50 per cent MLAs may be denied tickets.
However, the BJP poll strategists are not sure whether this alone can help out in a difficult election year.