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Santhosh underlines importance of coordination, dialogue within BJP
Santhosh’s two-day visit to Lucknow was seen as a precursor to the visits by Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda, as the party has begun work on assessing its position on seats where “more efforts” are needed
LUCKNOW Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary (organization) BL Santhosh winded up his two-day Lucknow visit after holding wide ranging consultations with chief minister Yogi Adityanath and party functionaries on UP’s role in the party’s Mission 2024.
Emphasising on the importance of social media, he advocated strengthening the system of booth-level whatsapp groups and delivery of ‘beneficiary’ schemes, that many in the BJP feel had been “gamechangers”.
In his closed-door meetings with party cadres, Santhosh expressed happiness over the series of wins the BJP recorded from Lok Sabha to assembly and panchayat level polls and emphasised on the importance of ‘samanvay aur samvaad’ (coordination and dialogue) within the party, counselling against overconfidence.
“For the first time, we have a whole new section of ‘beneficiary’ voters...people who have benefitted from welfare schemes of the double engine Modi and Yogi governments and have voted for us. Our wins in constituencies dominated by Muslims, who people said, would never vote for us, are proof of this and Santhosh too emphasised on bettering the delivery of these schemes,” a party leader said.
“On Santhosh’s suggestion, booth level whatsapp groups would also include regional and state level party functionaries to aid in quick coordination and implementation of the party’s decisions,” another party leader said.
Santhosh’s two-day visit to Lucknow was being seen as a precursor to the forthcoming visits by Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda, as the BJP had begun work on assessing its position on seats where “more efforts” were needed.
Reviewing preparedness ahead of Shah’s arrival, expected later this month, Santhosh emphasised on properly managing the ‘panna pramukh’ (head of the page on the voters’ list), a system first experimented by Shah in Gujarat, where BJP recently won yet another election after 27 years of being in power there.
Since 2013, when the present Union home minister Amit Shah became UP BJP in-charge and emphasized on booth level mobilisation of cadres, the booths had become an integral focus in all BJP campaigns and Santhosh asked state leaders to ensure that there was no let-up in this regard.
In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, there were 16 LS seats in U.P. where BJP candidates or those of its allies lost to opposition parties. These opposition seats included Rae Bareli, the LS constituency of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Mainpuri, the LS constituency of Samajwadi Party founder late Mulayam Singh Yadav (which after Mulayam’s death was won by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple).
Since June, the BJP had won three constituencies – Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats in June and Rampur (Sadar) assembly seat in December 5 bypoll – all seats with substantial Muslim presence. The BJP was expected to field several Muslim candidates in the now-delayed urban local body polls, and during their meeting with Santhosh, the party’s minority wing presented a detailed analysis of its ongoing campaign to woo ‘pasmanda (backward)’ Muslims.
Some members of UP BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary’s team, who were holding dual responsibilities as ministers and holding party posts too, could vacate their positions soon, it was learnt.
