The next time you see a stranger clad in Kurta-pajama and Nehru-cut jacket seeking your personal details, you may chose to be generous. For, this is a new strategy of political parties to reach out to voters ahead of lok Sabha election scheduled next year.
Chandigarh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has embarked on a new plan of creating database of the city denizens. BJP’s youth wing — Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in Chandigarh has been entrusted with the task to meet city residents’ everyday and collect their personal details, and subsequently, create a voters’ database, which will be used in future elections by the party.
The city BJYM has already initiated the process to amass data from general public and would continue to do so till lok Sabha election 2014. Under its ongoing drive, the city BJYM workers meet voters across the city and seek personal details like name, age, address, contact number from them. Each BJYM worker has been directed to meet at least 10 people every day and collect their personal details.
The party’s strategy is to contact every person included in the database before 2014 elections to seek their support. The party city unit hopes that the database will contain details of as many as lakhs of voters by the time parliamentary elections are announced in 2014. To create the voters’ database, the BJYM workers have been asked to visit rural areas, college campuses among other major spots in Chandigarh.
Also, a special pamphlet designed by the party is handed over to the voters, who share their details with the BJYM workers. The pamphlet gives an account of issues like corruption, unemployment, naxalism, terrorism in India and makes an appeal to the citizens to oust the corrupt Congress and give verdict in favour of BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in 2014 polls.
“The idea is to create the database that will help the party in the long run. The people included in the database will be contacted by the party members during the process of election campaigning in lok Sabha election 2014,” said Amit Rana, Chandigarh BJYM President while talking to The Pioneer.
He said, “More than 400 party workers are engaged in the task. The party workers meet city residents every day and also apprise them about Modi’s vision to build strong India.” “The process to create a database of voters of the city will continue till 2014 polls. Once created, the database will also be used for campaigning during civic body elections or other elections in the city,” said Amit.
Asked about the response of general public during party’s drive, he added, “Generally, people are reluctant to share their personal details. However, as BJP workers carry party’s pamphlets with them, this gives an idea to the public about our ongoing initiative and people give positive response.”
Recently, the BJYM has initiated a campaign Nayi Soch, Nayi Umeed, Nayi Rajneeti, with a sole aim to ensure BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s victory in the upcoming poll. Targeting to connect with large number of people of the city, the BJYM members are focusing to cover ISBT Sector 43, ISBT Sector 17 and tourist spots, where travellers from across the country reach Chandigarh every day. The party is also reaching out to the voters through SMS campaigns, its website and other social networking outlets including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.