E-Paper
Catch ‘em young: BJP’s mantra as they aim at pool of 11 lakh Yuva Warriors in state
With 65% of the country’s population expected to be below 30 years by 2030, the party is aiming to attract youngsters by enrolling them into the party
Prefer HTon Google
Mumbai: With the general elections scheduled next year and the local body polls expected this year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set itself a target of creating a pool of 11 lakh youth — as their Yuva Warriors that would be in the age group of 18-35 years — in the state by February 2024.
With 65% of the country’s population expected to be below 30 years by 2030, the party is aiming to attract youngsters by enrolling them into the party. The Yuva Warriors programme is implemented by organising various social, sports, adventure and cultural activities on various platforms.
In the second phase, to be implemented after the next year’s election, they aim at increasing the strength of this pool to 25 lakhs. The party expects these warriors to not only become their voters but carry the baton to emerge as leaders of the party in future.
A Worli Shakha of the Yuva Warriors inaugurated by party MP and youth wing’s national president Tejaswi Surya three months ago, operates from a footpath on Pochkhanwala Road in Worli. Of the 50 warriors appointed by the party, at least over a dozen assemble there every evening to meet people and listen to their issues and try to solve them by assigning them to the warriors.
Students from nearby colleges such as Sasmira, Kirti College come to the shakha with their complaints related to admission facilities in the college. Also, residents of BDD chawl come to them with their difficulties in getting the documents required to prove their eligibility for the flats under redevelopment scheme.
The shakha, headed by its commander Arjun Meghe, son of former MP Datta Meghe, also organises social and sports events to connect with the people at the ground level.
“We have trained thousands of women in making candles, bags, rakhis to help them stand on their own feet. Though the Youth Warriors are in the age group of 18-35, we are free to help and work for the welfare of citizens from all age groups,” said Meghe.
“For the youngsters, we organise football training, competitions such as battle rap, hip hop dancing to connect with the youth from the area. During such events, we also apprise these youth with party activities and various schemes undertaken by our leadership,” added Meghe.
Another youth warrior, Shrikant Surawase, attends to problems of residents from BDD chawls with their difficulties in getting the documents required for verification. His teammates are busy attending to others, who come up with issues of all sorts.
BJP’s youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), which has been implementing the drive, has more than 227 such shakhas in Mumbai and more than 2,200 across the state. About 40% of shakhas operate from foothpaths, while others have their own offices.
The party will engage these youth through 21,000 shakhas that the party has aimed to set up by February next year — with at least 50 youngsters enrolled in each of them. With 2,200 such shakhas already in place across the state, the party has set the target of spreading the network rapidly.
“Youngsters are disillusioned with politics and politicians. They also fall prey to fake narrative, misinformation and bad practices they are targetted with. By involving them in activities such as cleanliness drive at the beach, adventure programmes at forts, etc., we get connected with them. They are then apprised about all the good work done by the leadership of the country and making them aware about the difference between incumbent prime minister and the previous prime ministers,” said Vikram Patil, general secretary, BJP.
Tajinder Singh Tiwana, Mumbai head of BJYM, said that they have set the target of opening about 9,000 shakhas in Mumbai before Lok Sabha elections next year. “Mumbai has 8,749 polling booths and we want that many shakhas to be operational. We have 227 shakhas already opened and few more will be opened in the next few days,” said Tiwana.
“We want the youth warriors to address the issues faced by the people in their daily life such as those related to health services, water-electricity supply or police station related issues. Through this, they would develop their relations with the general public and in turn, help the party by working at the booth level. The warriors undergo a training camp to learn how to do all this,” he said.
Tiwana said that their shakhas are different from the ones operated by other parties like Shiv Sena (UBT). “Yuva Sena is active in a just a few areas like Worli from where Aaditya Thackeray is an MLA. Their work does not go beyond organising cricket matches. We have been touching on issues that are closer to the common man,” he added.
Patil, however, said that there was no political motive behind the drive. “We want the youth to be aware about the reality and the work done by the ruling parties in the last 75 years. The programme will inculcate the nationalist values in them.”
