The BJP is focusing on a 60-day membership drive, booth audit and Viksit Bharat Yatra.
While the Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) is nowhere near getting its house in order, the BJP is already in the advanced level of executing its campaign strategies ahead of the upcoming general elections.
In 2019, the code of conduct had come into force on 11 March, while the first phase of the elections were held on 11 April. Sticking to this timeline, the first phase of the 2024 general elections are fewer than 95 days away.
As a result, the BJP, for example in Bihar, has given a 60-day deadline to its leaders to ensure that all politically exposed persons, who have contested any form of elections in their life, be it the village or the block level polls, are given BJP membership. The party will take stock of the performance of this exercise in the first week of March to gauge how many new people have joined the party.
This, as per a senior party functionary, was being done so that the vote share of the party increased at every booth. “If we can get even 2-3 people who have contested elections in the past to join the BJP, we are securing at least 2,000-3,000 additional votes as it is safe to assume that such individuals have the capacity and the support of at least 1,000 voters in their area. And these 3,000 votes, when you look in the context of one Lok Sabha seat, will turn into a huge number. We will get these additional votes just by making interested people join the BJP,” the functionary explained.
Similarly, keeping Bihar as an example, “booth reverification” or audit process has been going on, as part of which party leaders are verifying whether the booth workers, who were present in the earlier elections, are still physically present or have left, which can be due to multiple reasons. Of the 77,000 booths, reverification of 55,000-plus booths have already been done. Due to this exercise, the party has been able to pinpoint the booths where it has few or zero active party workers; as a result, it has now assigned these responsibilities to new workers. This entire exercise is expected to be completed by mid-January.
Similar exercises are taking place in other states.
Another major election oriented exercise that was missed by many eyes was the launch of Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, which was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 November 2023 from Khunti, Jharkhand with multiple information, education and communication (IEC) vans launched simultaneously from various locations across the country.
As part of the Yatra, various on-the-spot services like enrolment to Central government schemes is being done under the guidance of BJP workers. As per the latest data, more than 9.47 lakh people were given access to clean cooking fuel under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), distribution of over 1.64 crore Ayushman cards has been done, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) has been provided to more than 18.15 lakh citizens.
Similarly, over 10.86 lakh individuals have availed the benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), which provides life insurance. Both these schemes are furthering financial inclusion across India.
Additionally, more than 6.79 lakh street vendors have been given working capital loans under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) during the Yatra.
By 25 January, the Yatra aims to cover over 2.60 lakh gram panchayats and 4000+ urban local bodies across the country.
Apart from creating awareness about the government’s welfare schemes and ensuring that these social welfare programs reach every individual, the yatra is having a massive political impact, as per BJP leaders.
“We (BJP workers) are going to every village and facilitating filling of forms of those people who are eligible but yet have not been able to avail the benefits of these multiple government schemes. There are close to 16 Central schemes that we are apprising the people of. and helping them in filling the forms for taking the benefits of these schemes which include PM Aawas Yojana,” a party functionary said.
According to BJP leaders, the initial feedback that they got was that in many villages across India, people failed to differentiate between a Central government scheme and a state government scheme, as a result of which most of the Central schemes were being identified with the ruling party in the state, because it was the state government officials who were executing the scheme on the ground.
According to BJP leaders who are executing this yatra, the people who are being covered under the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra are now realising that much of the schemes which they had heard of and seen people getting benefits, were Central government schemes. The party functionaries are distributing calendars that have the pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to residents of the village or town where these vans are going.
Senior Central government officials are keeping a tab on the feedback received from these places so that necessary changes can be done to the Central schemes on the basis of the suggestions that are being received from the beneficiaries.