BJP banks on ‘vistaraks’ as part of campaign for state, LS polls

Senior party leaders including party president JP Nadda, home minister Amit Shah and national general secretaries will begin touring the poll-bound states to address rallies and meet state functionaries to draw up the party’s election strategy, a person aware of the details said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set in motion an intensive campaign by deputing “vistaraks” (full-time workers) in each of the assembly constituencies in the nine states that go to the polls this year and in 160 Lok Sabha constituencies identified as seats where the party needs to redouble efforts to increase its vote share and improve its performance ahead of the 2024 general elections.

The “vistaraks” have the mandate to oversee the implementation of work related to the organisation, in addition to filing reports on election preparations, a second party functionary said. (Burhaan Kinu/HT Photo)

Senior party leaders including party president JP Nadda, home minister Amit Shah and national general secretaries will begin touring the poll-bound states to address rallies and meet state functionaries to draw up the party’s election strategy, a person aware of the details said.

The “vistaraks” have the mandate to oversee the implementation of work related to the organisation, in addition to filing reports on election preparations, a second party functionary said. “They will report to the district presidents and to the central leadership as well,” he said, seeking anonymity.

The party relies on its full-time workers to streamline organisational issues and the practice has been in place for several years now. “In the next few weeks, we will announce vistaraks for constituencies, in addition to the 160 that have been identified,” the second functionary said.

As part of their duty, the “vistaraks” have to spend time in the constituency allocated to them; meet workers at the mandal and municipal levels; help identify areas that need attention; resolve intraparty differences; and aid in strengthening the party’s presence at the booth level.

“Regular training workshops are held for the vistaraks and even senior party leaders have been given charge of constituencies at various times. In 2017, under the Vistara Yojna, Union minister Amit Shah had to carry out a door- to-door sampark (outreach) in Odisha’s Ganjam,” said a third party leader, declining to be named.

Referring to the upcoming tours of senior party leaders, the first functionary said Nadda will be in Karnataka on January 5 and 6, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address a function in the state on January 12.

Shah is scheduled to visit 11 states this month as part of party’s Lok Sabha Pravas campaign to galvanise the cadre ahead of the 2024 polls. He is expected to travel to Tripura on January 5 and Manipur and Nagaland on January 6. Between January 7 and 8, he is scheduled to visit Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh, followed by Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka later in the month.