BJP starts drive with focus on intensifying its rural outreach

The Gaon Chalo Abhiyan plans to cover 700k villages.

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) plans to intensify its outreach in rural areas with a campaign that will see senior leaders spend time in villages to assess the mood on the ground, ensure saturation of schemes and underscore the achievements of the Union government, particularly the completion of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, people aware of the details said on Friday.

On Saturday, BJP president JP Nadda launched the “Gaon Chalo Abhiyan”, which a party functionary said is designed to allow interaction between leaders and voters in booths across 700,000 villages. The BJP, once considered an urban-centric party, has been making inroads into rural India through a slew of social welfare schemes oriented towards empowering the economically weak and socially marginalised.

According to CSDS-Lokniti, the BJP’s vote share in rural areas went up from 30.3% in 2014 to 37.6% in 2019. Party leaders attribute this change to labharthis (beneficiaries) voting for the BJP, overlooking caste and other local considerations.

“The change in vote share was a result of the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the success of schemes, notably the construction of izzat ghar (toilets), houses for the poor (PM Awas Yojna), Har Ghar Nal (piped water supply), which were given to people across castes and religions,” said another party functionary.

The party has set a target of bagging more than 51% votes in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. In constituencies where its share is already 50- 51%, the plan is to increase it further and win by bigger margins.

To leverage the popular support for PM Modi and the social schemes in addition to the free food grains that are being provided for the economically weaker sections, the BJP leadership has tasked its cadres, including ministers, lawmakers and legislators with spending at least one day in a village.

“The campaign will be similar to the outreach programmes that are conducted ahead of elections with leaders going over preparations at the booth level, buttressing door-to-door campaigns with canvassing through social media platforms, and mobile applications such as WhatsApp groups, Telegram channels and party apps such as the NaMO app,” the leader quoted above said.

“The cadre has to ensure voter enrolment; registration of people for government schemes under the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra; organise meetings of groups based on caste, profession and age and rope in local influencers, religious and cultural icons to canvass for the party,” the leader said.

As is done ahead of all elections, the party will make a concerted effort to reach out to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, OBCs and women. “The leaders have also been asked to ensure they visit places of local relevance, be it a temple, a tourist spot or families of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in combat. They will also participate in cleaning drives, tree plantation and restoration work of water bodies,” the leader said.

A central theme of the campaign will be the achievements of the Modi government and the stress the PM puts on empowering people in rural areas, particularly villages that are close to border areas.

“All states units have been told to make groups of four to six leaders who will then travel to the villages every 15 days till the end of the Lok Sabha elections,” the leader said.

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