GUWAHATI, June 12 - With the next Assam Assembly polls only months away, the ruling BJP has started a State-wide exercise to ramp up its organisational base as the party seeks to steal a march over its rivals.
In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the party is undertaking the organisational activities by following norms of social distancing and other regulations.
State BJP vice president Vijay Kumar Gupta told this newspaper on Thursday that the main thrust is on strengthening the party at the grassroots by making sure that the booth-level cadres are active, and by conducting public outreach programmes door-to-door.
�The lockdown rules mean that public meetings or rallies cannot be carried out. Therefore, we are focusing more on booth-level outreach programmes. At the same time, we have also intensified our online activities to keep contact with cadres at various levels and also to reach out to the voters. With the Assembly polls to be held in March-April next year, our party cannot afford to be complacent and needs to utilise the remaining months properly if we are to achieve our target of 100-plus seats for the BJP and its allies,� he said.
Gupta said that all the 26,000 booth committees of the BJP in Assam have formed at least two WhatsApp groups each. This is intended to reach out to the party�s cadres as well as the voters.
In addition, at each booth special teams, comprising five youth wing members of the party, five women�s wing members, five cadres belonging to SC, ST and OBC communities, as well as five cadres having bikes for faster movement, are to be identified and deployed.
�We are also preparing lists at each booth containing names of 25 prominent individuals and key voters, who have influence in the localities where they reside. The party will hold monthly contact programmes with such individuals. All these activities are going on full swing. If we have to do well in the elections, then the crux lies on making our booth committees stronger and efficient,� said a BJP leader.
The party�s house-to-house contact programme will begin from June 16. Teams comprising two cadres each, will visit voters at their homes and distribute booklets describing the achievements and welfare schemes of the Narendra Modi-led Central government and the Sarbananda Sonowal-led State government.
A total of ten such teams are being constituted in each booth committee. The party has set a target to directly reach out to 50 lakh families in Assam within a fortnight.
�We will accord special emphasis to constituencies represented by opposition parties,� said another senior BJP leader.
In view of the restrictions in place due to the pandemic, which prohibits public meetings, the saffron party will hold a total of three �virtual rallies� in line with those organised recently in states like West Bengal and Bihar. The first such event will take place in Guwahati on June 18, followed by similar events in Dibrugarh on June 21 and Silchar on June 24.
The Guwahati virtual rally will be addressed by BJP�s national president JP Nadda from New Delhi by the online mode.
Social media applications, including Zoom, Facebook Live, YouTube and WhatsApp will be used to telecast the rallies to the public.
