BJP looks to woo religious leaders, residents’ bodies

Eyes firmly set on the coming Assembly polls, the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking to trudge onto hence uncharted territories and tap a section of population it believes can add to its vote count — the city’s religious leaders. Neelam Pandey reports.

Eyes firmly set on the coming Assembly polls, the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking to trudge onto hence uncharted territories and tap a section of population it believes can add to its vote count — the city’s religious leaders.

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In a meeting of the election sub-committees on Wednesday, the party’s high-command asked all workers to start holding meetings with clergies, granthis, pandits, and maulvis at their respective places of worship.

Sources said the idea was to reach out to people who have a mass appeal and connect to the general public through them.

The party has decided to send out personal invitation to them for Narendra Modi’s rally that is scheduled for September 29.

BJP workers have also been asked to make rounds of all religious places, take part in processions and hold functions to connect with the people.

“In the meeting, emphasis was laid on connecting with people who have mass appeal such as priests and clergies. They interact with the masses everyday and hence workers have been asked to arrange meetings with them and discuss the visions of the BJP. Once these interactions are over, they will be asked to hold meetings at a bigger level,” a senior BJP leader said.

The party, a day after launching its official election campaign, also asked its workers to involve the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in the campaigning process as they constituted a huge vote bank and could mobilise the people of their respective areas.

“Senior party leaders are of the opinion that we immediately need to counter the Bhagidari scheme of the Delhi government. The idea is to tap into RWAs and hold more meetings at the president, secretary level and make them aware of the failures of the government,” added another leader.