BJP to look beyond political players to amplify outreach

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning to rope in “non-political players” to amplify its outreach against the Opposition’s campaign over the alleged irregularities in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to buttress its argument that the allegations leveled against the Election Commission of India (ECI) are a political ploy by the Congress-led INDIA bloc partners to discredit the institution, people aware of the matter said.

BJP national president Nitin Nabin on Thursday chaired a meeting with senior party leaders to review the progress of the outreach.

This comes ahead of the Congress’s “Chalo Dilli” march, called by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on November 1.

According to a person aware of the details, the party cadre will continue to hold marches and other public events against the Opposition’s campaign, but similar events by traders’ bodies, professionals and civil society at large are also being planned.

A civil society group called “Forum for Democracy” will hold a mock Parliament on Friday at the Constitution Club as a counter to the Opposition staging a similar event. On Thursday, a traders’ association in Delhi’s Khari Baoli wrote letters to Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee complaining about the disruption of their rallies.

“People can see through the Opposition’s attempts to delegitimise constitutional authorities. It is not at BJP’s behest that the traders have come forward to complain,” said a party leader. The leader said hundreds of events have been planned across 126 places in the country to create awareness about the Opposition’s attempts to “discredit” the poll panel.

Union minister Kiren Rijiju who is part of a group set up to counter the Opposition’s campaign said the Opposition is obfuscating facts. “The Opposition wants to change the regime through anarchy but the People of India will reject the idea. They believe in a peaceful, democratic process,” he said.

On the rallies and the mock Parliament being planned by the Opposition he said, “If they (Opposition) can gather people, we will also gather people in bigger numbers. But that will not decide the fate of the government. It is decided by the ballot.”

Rijiju was present at the review meeting which was also attended by Union ministers, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Piyush Goyal, Bhupender Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya and Ashwani Vaishnaw. Several senior leaders including Ram Madhav, Satish Poonia and Anil Baluni were also in attendance.