In a country where cricket is religion, it is indeed hard to keep the game and politics apart.The BJP’s youth wing has now come up with the idea of holding a nation-wide cricket tournament later this month to reach out to the young generation and make them play ball with party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
After the “Run for Unity” on December 15, the death anniversary of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, this cricket tournament is the second big event by the party to connect with the youth, mostly in urban areas.
The event — Khelega Yuva, Jeetega Bharat (youth play, India wins) — will be simultaneously held in most of the districts of the country on January 11. “Yes, we have planned such an event and we look forward to making it a grand success,” BJYM chief and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur told The Pioneer.
State units of the BJP’s youth wing have been asked to submit by Friday a detailed list of the number of teams that are going to participate. “There would be around a dozen-odd teams in each district. In some areas, it could be even more,” BJYM leader Dinesh Pratap Singh said.
More than 45 lakh youth had participated in the Run for Unity and BJYM leaders claim the nationwide cricket tournament would create another world record in terms of participation and scale of such an event.
Winners of the T-20 matches at the district level would be made to play at the State level and subsequently at the national level. The finals would be played at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association cricket stadium at Dharamshala before February end.
The BJYM also plans a “Sarhad Ko Pranam” programme under which party leaders will visit border areas and meet villagers and security personnel deployed there.