Following its nation-wide membership drive and networking campaign, Bharatiya Janata Party is now focusing on strengthening its supporter base by training them for better functioning. BJP national General Secretary P Murlidhar Rao shared this information during a press meet on Friday.
Christened Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Prasikshan mahaabhiyan, the training campaign is to be carried out nation-wide for duration of four months, informed Rao.
“Party-workers are a crucial unit of party’s overall functioning. They are the agents of socio-economic change. Keeping these in mind, we are going to do what has never been done in the history of Indian politics- a training campaign for our members and activists. Only the party-workers trained under this training campaign will be eligible for becoming office-bearers in BJP,” said Rao.
He further stated, “This training campaign aims at consolidating internal democracy in BJP. We are planning to train around fifty thousand BJP supporters in Jharkhand and 15 lakh party members across the nation. Apart from the forty thousand active members in the state, we will be bringing representatives from marginalised social sections, like SCs, STs and women, under the aegis of the training program.”
Under a planned framework, training camps will be organised in eleven thousand blocks, seven hundred districts and 35 provinces across the country.
“To prepare trainers in the initial phase of this campaign, we will be organising trainer training camps first. Around 18 trainers training camps are to be organised in Jharkhand between August 15 and August 20. Only those with firm grasp over the topics in curriculum will be allowed to act as trainers in the training campaign,” Rao further added.
The standardised curriculum is to cover three broader sections: ideological aspects of BJP’s functioning, political challenges before the nation and instructing the new blood in the party about its functioning. This campaign, unlike its predecessors will not be publicity-centred as activists cannot be trained by publicising them, said Rao, and its every aspect will have simplicity at its core.
Talking about the budget for this training program, Rao said, “We have fixed a certain amount as fees that workers selected for the campaign have to pay.”
For block-level camps it is Rs50, for district-level Rs200 and for state-level Rs 250. If the amount thus gathered is insufficient, we will approach some donors for some minor donations,” he added.