BJP plans 10,000 ‘nukkad’ meetings to woo voters

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 24

The BJP has planned more than 10,000 small meetings and rallies in Delhi for a man-to-man marking with an aim to reach out to voters in the high-stake Delhi Assembly elections, where it is engaged in a keen triangular contest with incumbent AAP and the Congress combine.

Leaders say rather than concentrating on big meetings, the strategy is to hold many small rallies, ‘nukkad’ meetings and ‘padyatras’ to reach out to the innermost parts of Delhi to woo voters, many of whom belong to the lower middle class and form a major chunk of the ruling AAP supporters.

Not just local leaders, BJP’s topmost leaders, such as Amit Shah and JP Nadda, are also engaged in these meetings irrespective of the size of the gathering. With the exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all other leaders are running a “local campaign”, they say. With Home Minister Shah and party president JP Nadda at the forefront, the BJP today held 250 events across the Capital.

The strategy is to also to reach out those people from other states who have made Delhi their home over the years. It is not just the ‘Purvanchali’ leaders who are engaging voters from UP and Bihar. Leaders from other states, such as Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, have also been assigned areas where people from respective states are residing. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, in charge Shyam Jaju and seven MPs are all participating in three to five election programmes daily, leaders say.

Sources say a more focused strategy was the need of the hour, especially with incumbent CM Arvind Kejriwal turning a new leaf and concentrating on local issues and a positive campaign. “Kejriwal is not attacking Modi because he knows the Prime Minister is a popular leader. It was a mistake he made in early days when he saw himself as his challenger at the national level. Alongside, he is now also focusing on local issues and staying away from controversial issues that do not give the BJP much opportunity to target him on the nationalist front,” say observers.