BJP reaches out to intellectuals, youths

New Delhi: The BJP is making special efforts to reach out to opinion leaders such as intellectuals, youths and religious leaders of the national capital, ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections. According to sources in the party, a team of 100 volunteers are engaged with the opinion leaders to debunk the “lies” spread by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) against BJP in Delhi.
A highly placed source in BJP told The Sunday Guardian: “We have been working for the past one month in various localities of Delhi to connect with the intellectuals, youths and religious leaders as they can influence people to debunk the lies spread by the AAP against BJP.” The same source also said that this task is being done under the leadership of Gautam Gambhir, MP of East Delhi, and Hans Raj Hans, MP of North West Delhi. Though headed by two local MPs of the party, the coordination between the groups is being managed by Khem Chand Sharma, member of the National IT and social media campaign committee, Sudhir Gupta and Rajnish Goenka.
“Several people have started engaging with us and in the past one month, the membership has increased to 1,000,” said a source in the BJP who is working closely in this regard.
A BJP leader who did not wish to be named told The Sunday Guardian: “Though it is the BJP which regularised the unauthorised colonies, the AAP is trying to take credit for this. Similarly, in many fronts, AAP is misleading Delhiites. Thus, the role of opinion leaders is important. They can at least spread awareness among the people.” This move of the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls must be seen in the light of the perceived “louder resonance” of AAP’s freebies over BJP’s poll promises such as regularisation of colonies, etc.