The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership has asked its cadre to sharpen public outreach and elected representatives to invest more time in constituencies as criticism mounts against the National Democratic Alliance government over discrepancies in examinations and employment issues, inflation in food, transport and energy bills and other reasons, said people aware of the details.
The instruction comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s long meeting with the new set of BJP office bearers on Saturday, where he is learnt to have underscored the need to hit the ground running.
BJP Leadership Calls for Improved Engagement
According to a person privy to the details, the PM, in a candid, freewheeling conversation with the national and state office bearers, made a reference to people getting restive and urged the team to think out of the box.
“He said contemporary problems require newer ways of finding solutions…the new team will have to work with newer ideas…” said a person privy to the details.
As elections to five states, including the politically significant Uttar Pradesh, approach, the Opposition has also stepped up pressure on the government. The Congress has begun a nationwide campaign led by Rahul Gandhi, ‘Chhattron Ki Goonj,’ specifically designed to woo the youth. The Samajwadi Party has made the donation controversy in Ayodhya a key political issue, and the Aam Aadmi Party has also thrown its hat in the ring with the “School Theek Karo Abhiyaan” (Fix the Schools Campaign) across Uttar Pradesh led by Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh.
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{{/usCountry}}The PM’s instruction at the four-hour meeting was to review and renew their contact with the electorate. “He shared his own experiences of how he worked his way up in the organisation, gave tips on how to address the concerns of the people, and forge a deeper connection with them,” the person quoted above said.
The BJP is a cadre-based party that relies heavily on foot soldiers as well as its ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The PM is learnt to have made a reference to this organisational edifice to drive home the need to revisit activities at the grassroots level.
“There seems to be a perception that after winning consecutive elections, a sense of complacency and even hubris may have crept in…this has been conveyed to the top brass by RSS. The internal assessment process had also flagged that elected representatives were spending fewer days in their constituencies,” said a second party leader.
The leader explained that all lawmakers and legislators, apart from ministers, are expected to spend a certain quantum of time overseeing work in their respective constituencies and follow up on policy decisions. “There are groups of MPs headed by a minister who meet regularly to focus on particular issues in states, but of late these have become a calendar event…” said the second leader.