Ghaziabad: As poll day nears, parties strengthen booth-level strategy

Congress has also started working at booth level strategy and a 12-member team for every Gram Panchayat in rural belts is working to contact voters

As the Lok Sabha election inches closer, contesting candidates are sweating it out day and night with voter contact meetings and door-to-door campaigns across the Ghaziabad parliamentary constituency. However, their party organisations have laid down the strategy to target voters at the booth level.

The Ghaziabad constituency goes to polls on April 26 and according to official records, it has presence of 841 polling centres comprising 3,197 polling booths for the 2024 election. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The Ghaziabad constituency goes to polls on April 26 and according to official records, it has presence of 841 polling centres comprising 3,197 polling booths for the 2024 election. According to the electoral rolls finalised on April 4, the Ghaziabad parliamentary seat has 2,941,624 voters.

In line with the booth-level strategy, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office bearers said that their strategy banks on “Panna Pramukhs” who have each been tasked with contacting 60 voters figuring in one page of the electoral rolls.

“These Panna Pramukhs work at the ground level and remain in contact with voters in the list assigned to them. They spread word about the policies and benefits and also have to contact beneficiaries of the policies. Their work is also to encourage voters to come out and vote. For each 60 voters in one folio of the electoral rolls, we have as many Panna Pramukhs working at the ground level,” said Ajay Sharma, Ghaziabad Lok Sabha convener of the BJP.

The BJP’s city president Sanjeev Sharma could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

“It is estimated that one booth has an average of 1,000 voters. So, there are Panna Pramukhs for every 60 voters in a folio of electoral rolls. These are active party workers. A group of Panna Pramukhs is headed by a ‘Booth Adhyaksh.’ These grassroots teams are directly monitored by city/district unit and the state unit of the party,” said Pradeep Chaudhary, media coordinator of the BJP’s city unit.

Chaudhary added that the party has already held “booth sammelans” for every assembly segment in Ghaziabad where the booth-adhyakshas and panna pramukhs were briefed by senior party leaders and also shared their experiences.

Apart from the BJP, the Congress this time is in alliance with other parties and member of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc.

Vinit Tyagi, the Congress’ district president, said that the party has also started working at booth level strategy and a 12-member team for every Gram Panchayat in rural belts is working to contact voters.

“In our gram panchayat arrangement, we have an average of about three villages. So, a 12-member team is doing the grassroots work of contacting voters for every gram panchayat. Our candidate is campaigning in different areas and it is difficult to have an outreach among all 2.941 million voters. So, these teams have started ground-level contact programmes with voters,” Tyagi added.

Vijay Chaudhary, the Congress’ city president, said that with alliance partners and support parties coming in, three teams have already been identified for every residential ward to contact voters.

“We have three teams working in each of the 100 residential wards in the city. Likewise, three teams each are contacting voters in other local bodies of Loni, Khoda, Dhaulana and Muradnagar,” Chaudhary added.

The third major party contesting this election is the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

“We have different teams working to reach the doorsteps of voters across the parliamentary constituency. These include our IT teams who are spreading messages while for every booth we have a 10-member team which is headed by a senior member. They are connecting with voters at the ground level and spreading our party’s message,” said Dayaram Sain, district president of the BSP.

There are 14 candidates in the fray from the Ghaziabad Lok Sabha seat. The BJP has fielded sitting MLA Atul Garg, the Congress has fielded Dolly Sharma, and the BSP has fielded Nandkishor Pundhir.

“The booth-level strategy shapes win or loss for a candidate in elections. The party with the strongest booth-level support will surely come out with flying colours. The contesting candidates have limitation in reaching out to every voter. But booth level workers makes it easy for candidates and their parties,” said KK Sharma, associate professor (History) from CCS University, Meerut.