BENGALURU: Committed and full-time activists of state BJP will soon be bestowed with ‘bike bhagya’. The party leadership is set to distribute among them the bikes which were provided to party workers ahead of the Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.
The distribution of bikes under the Vistarak (outreach volunteer) programme for mass contact by BJP proved a huge success in Uttar Pradesh. Determined to replicate it in the forthcoming Assembly election in Karnataka, the party has launched the programme in the state too. Vistarak volunteers, who dedicate a minimum of 15 days for door to door contact programme to enlist new supporters, will be eligible to get the bikes.
The party had provided about 300 TVS Sport bikes for vistaraks in Uttar Pradesh and they are now being distributed to vistaraks in Karnataka and Telangana.
“We have received 26 bikes as of now and are expecting many more. These bikes will be distributed among vistaraks who commit themselves for one year, full-time service under the party outreach programme,” N Ravikumar, BJP State General Secretary told Express.
“We intend to provide the bikes for at least one vistarak in each of the 224 Assembly constituency. However, a clear picture on the number of bikes to be distributed would emerge after the state BJP Executive meeting to be held on August 6,” Ravikumar said.
According to party sources, the party would meet the fuel and maintenance cost of the bikes too. So far over 30,000 have registered themselves to work as vistaraks. However, over 90% of them have volunteered only for the 15-day duration. The number of those registered for a full year term is 49. The first batch of bikes that has arrived would be distributed to these members and the party is confident of seeing a big rise in this number in the coming days.
BJP national leadership, which is keen to substantially improve its tally from the southern states in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, is providing bikes for BJP vistaraks in the neighbouring state of Telangana too.