The star campaigner of the BJP, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has not only boosted the morale of a downcast party cadre by his successful maiden rally in Hyderabad but has also set some ground rules on how to make the party fit for the forthcoming general elections. He promised to come to the State three-four times in the run up to the elections to make the party strong.
Modi, who was happy with the turnout of his ‘Navabharat Yuva Bheri’ rally, later addressed a gathering of party’s State leaders on how to go about rebuilding the organisation from the booth level.
Modi, who during the address sprung a surprise, by publicly inviting the TDP and other non-Congress parties to join hands with the BJP to make India “Congress Free”, privately advised the BJP leaders to keep the issue of alliances aside and focus their energy on strengthening the party.
Giving an example of Gujarat, Modi told the party leaders that victory in his State was not because of one person Narendra Modi alone but it was the result of hard work by thousands of party workers.
Modi enquired from the party leaders about the complicated situation in the State arising out of Congress decision to divide the State.
He also cautioned the party leaders against complacency that a favourable wind blowing in the country was enough to bring the party to power. Giving an example of a cycle tube he said that even if a strong wind of 120 kms per hour was blowing, it will not fill the tube. “There has to be a pipe between the air and the tube. Elections results are the same,” he said.
Modi urged the party workers to go door-to-door and canvass for support. “Every booth will have 200 families and about 600 to 700 voters. If we get majority of those votes we will win,” he said. Modi said that if at least five party workers work in one booth area and visit some houses every day that should be good enough. “In Gujarat, party won because of this sort of hard work by party workers,” he said.
Gujarat Chief Minister said that other parties will come to BJP for alliances only if the party was strong and was in a position to bag 12 per cent votes.
Giving his own example, Modi advised the party workers to lay more emphasis on the use of social media to spread their message. He said that the Congress spent a lot of money on social media to defeat the BJP but could not succeed as most of the social media users were supporter of the BJP.
While party workers were happy with the impact of Modi’s visit, the non-party participants of the rally were divided in their reactions. “In his anxiety to win support from the people of both Telangana and Andhra, Modi has left people of Telangana disappointed and confused,” one of the participant of the rally said when asked about his feelings.