BENGALURU: In the run up to the May 12 assembly elections in Karnataka, close to 400 select volunteers and professionals from across the country have descended in Bengaluru to help Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit. The party’s National President Amit Shah has handpicked close to 100 professionals, who have worked with him in the Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat assembly elections, to supervise, plan, strategise, execute and collect feedback for the Karnataka polls.
The BJP’s office in Malleswaram is a rather crowded place these days and the additional back up of personnel from Amit Shah is the core reason.
“There are some 36 departments working from that building and now there are people who have come down from Gujarat, Mumbai and New Delhi,” said a source from the party. Another source added that while 70-80 people from Amit Shah’s personal team work with the state units and supervise its functioning, most are working at the ground level to reach people of varied backgrounds, including language groups,” the source added.
Amit Shah’s personal team--largely comprising members from Association of Brilliant Minds (ABM)--is working with the state unit to assist with social media, finance, advertising, analysis, constituency profiling, campaign design and strategy.
“This team has assisted Amit Shah in UP and Gujarat and now they are in Karnataka. Once the elections here are done, they will move to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh,” said a BJP office bearer who did not want to be named.
The team of young professionals, largely natives of Gujarat, are working on each constituency. About 150 such select professionals and volunteers have been stationed outside Bengaluru.
“It is usual practice to bring in reinforcement from elsewhere during elections but this time around the numbers are higher than what we saw in 2013 election,” admitted another office bearer. With this, the BJP hopes to have two in-charges for every constituency--one from Karnataka and another from outside.
“This is similar to how the party has appointed one in-charge for every four assembly constituencies. The format is yet to be implemented in a full-fledged manner,” a source said.