As per strategy, party workers will be roping in students supporting its ideology.
New Delhi: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) kickstarts its campaign for the general elections scheduled for April-May this year, the party has set its eyes firm on the greenhorns in campuses across the country. The BJP is set to launch a pledge campaign “Pehla Vote Modi Ko” (first vote to Modi) in colleges and private educational institutes to target nearly 1.8 crore millennial voters who will be casting their votes for the first time in this general election.
According to the party’s strategy, BJP workers will be roping in students supporting the BJP ideology. In this regard, the youth wing of the BJP will appoint “campus ambassador” in every college and university who will be identifying and associating students with party ideology. These campus ambassadors will also be responsible for campaigning on social media and through other digital media in the colleges.
“The party workers will approach these students with development works of the Narendra Modi government and so they will be asked to take a pledge that they will cast their first vote to Modi,” said a BJP leader in the know of the party’s strategy.
The BJP will also form a network of “youth icons” at local levels for roping in new voters with the party. As per the plan, the “campus ambassadors” and “youth icons” will get the opportunity to participate as celebrity guests in “Yuva Sansad” (Mock Parliament) and Youth Townhalls to be organised by the BJP’s youth wing at the state and national levels.
In these townhalls, the greenhorns will learn the lessons on electioneering from top BJP leaders, including party president Amit Shah. The BJP’s youth campaign strategy was also discussed at the recently held National Council meeting of the BJP here.
A BJP leader said that the RSS’ youth wing—Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)—has launched a massive campaign in universities in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and many other South Indian states.
An ABVP functionary said that in recent times, the party has won student union elections in universities in Patna and smaller cities like Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur in Bihar for the first time in 25 years. With its outreach programmes, the party aims at bring these students to the party fold before the general elections.
A BJP source told The Sunday Guardian that the party had employed a similar strategy during the Assembly elections in states like Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland where the party got historic mandate.
“Buoyed by the massive expansion of the Sangh in the northeastern states that essentially won the BJP youth support, the RSS and BJP have further intensified its spread on campuses and in hostels and private institutions in educational hubs such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Pune. At the same time, the focus will be on smaller cities in these states,” said the ABVP leader.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Delhi BJP will be holding a massive rally of youth at the Ramlila Maidan in the national capital. Thousands of youth from different strata of society will be participating in the event that aims at garnering support of young voters. Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said already more than 25,000 youths have associated with the Yuva Vijay Sankalp rally. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is also the election in-charge for the BJP in Delhi, is likely to address the rally where first-timers will be told about the policies and achievements of the Modi government.