The Hindu : BJP, Sena campaign set to roll in Maharashtra

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

BJP, Sena campaign set to roll in Maharashtra

Anupama Katakam

MUMBAI

While the Congress and the NCP in Maharashtra dither over the selection of candidates and are still grappling with campaign strategies, the BJP election juggernaut is all set to roll. Compared to the other political parties in the State, the BJP election campaign is a carefully orchestrated one, which the party hopes to execute with military precision.

"We need to plan methodically. The Congress and NCP have a strong presence in most of Maharashtra and our aim is to break that," says Vinod Tawde, a senior State BJP leader and member of the campaign committee. "We have put together a multi-pronged strategy to combat the Congress-NCP alliance in the State."

Tawde told The Hindu that the party would begin the campaigning with `a door-to-door' voter contact programme. During the next 30 days, party workers will visit each voter's home four times, first to introduce the party, then with the manifesto, following which they will discuss local issues and conclude with a visit to explain the voting procedure and provide information slips for the voter. Tawde says the State BJP has mobilised 15,000 party workers to campaign in each Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra.

Further, every Lok Sabha constituency in the State will witness a speech by at least one national leader, while State party leaders will be given the task of holding public meetings in two Assembly constituencies. Tawde says the party will also get a celebrity to attend public meetings. Television stars will campaign in the rural and backward areas, while the bigger film stars will go to work in urban areas. In multi-lingual regions like Sholapur (southwest Maharashtra) and Dharavi (Mumbai), BJP leaders from the South will address public rallies.

Additionally, along with the distribution of the usual election paraphernalia, the party plans to launch a television show, an SMS drive and a telephone campaign. The latter, titled `Candidate Speak' will have party workers calling voters and playing a recorded message from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The BJP's ally, the Shiv Sena has planned a similar campaign. According to the Shiv Sena's campaign manager, Subash Desai, "We have 15 seats but we need to bring this up to 22. We are pulling out all the stops to ensure a victory." He says Sena leaders have already begun touring the State. "We are going to do everything from sending out SMSes to holding huge political rallies in every region."

In contrast, the Congress and the NCP appear disorganised and chaotic. With their campaign launch nearing, party leaders are unsure of the campaign plans. In fact, when questioned about the election campaign strategy, a Congress spokesperson said, "Ask the candidate."

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