BHOPAL: Social research at ground zero is the new mantra of the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh. The party workers are set to turn into number crunchers in the months to come. Dedicated teams of party workers will fan out to different parts of the state to conduct social research on variety of issues, including the analysis of party’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
The thrust on ground-based research comes in the wake of a three-day visit by national party president Amit Shah to Bhopal. Sources in state BJP said one of the areas on which Shah focused was to follow political parties of other nations, which continuously update their policies and programmes based on outcome of authentic social research by their workers.
Shah told state party leaders in closed-door meetings about the importance of research in rediscovering peculiarities of different regions of the state, changing trends in way of living and needs of people and groups inhabiting different regions, changing viewpoint of the people towards the party and its opponents, besides other demographic issues.
The state BJP’s Niti Vishayak Shodh Vibhag (research division) headed by former MP minister Ajay Bishnoi has been tasked with conducting ground research on a host of social and demographic issues, which would come in handy in strategising for 2018 polls. Bishnoi, who attended a series of meetings on Saturday, told The Sunday Standard the wider areas and spectrum of research is yet to be finalised.
“Our national president asked the party workers to work towards retaining power for next 40-50 years. He said, if we stay in power for long, we will succeed in transforming the nation as dreamt,” Bishnoi said.
Apart from the electoral possibilities, the outcome of social research will also have reflections in policies of the state government in the times to come.
Another key focus area stressed by Shah was to technologically upgrade every district party office in the state and ensure that each unit can be connected directly with party’s top brass in New Delhi through video-conferencing. At present, only the state party headquarters in Bhopal has permanent video-conferencing facilities.
Presently, the party has its permanent district offices in only 40 out of the total 51 districts. In some districts, the party doesn’t even have its own land for setting up offices, despite being in power for last 14 years, sources said.