BJD’s ‘sankha’ campaign ahead of 2024 polls
BHUBANESWAR: In a full-scale branding move ahead of the general elections next year, the BJD has launched a social media campaign, ‘Mo Sankha, Mo Garba’ (my conch, my pride) that centres around the party symbol.
Party ministers, MPs, MLAs, leaders and workers have gone all out posting selfie-videos on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with the slogan. This is for the first time in 25 years of its existence that the BJD has started such campaign involving its workers. While the majority of people in Odisha are familiar of conch and have it in their houses, the aim of the campaign is to establish it as a symbol of growth and prosperity in the state and align it with BJD, a senior party leader said.
Conch is also linked with the heritage and culture of Odisha and stands for peace, auspiciousness and purity. Conch has a religious significance and is worshipped. Besides, it is also used by people in social and other functions. Senior BJD leader and one of the party’s founding members Prasanna Acharya said conch was chosen as the symbol after taking into account all such factors. The BJD also aims to counter BJP whose symbol ‘lotus’ symbolises sanctity. Acharya said the objective of the campaign is to take it to the next level, so that there will no difference between the BJD and conch. As Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will always remain the major factor behind the party’s success in any election, the campaign will add to his and BJD’s invincibility, he added.
The party has nearly one crore members and if a majority of them are involved in the campaign, then half of the electioneering will be over before the election, a senior leader said. In the 2019 election, the BJD had launched ‘Ghare Ghare Sankha’ campaign which had led to its spectacular success.