Hyderabad, January 13
The BJP President, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, today came out with a detailed plan for moblising popular support for the party in the impending general election as he announced a campaigning calendar here consisting of a mass-contact programme and 116 public meetings before the official poll notification.
A 10-member team of senior party leaders led by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, will go all over the country to participate in the month-long mass-contact programme starting from January 23, called as ‘Atal Sandesh Yatra’.
Addressing a meeting of the party general secretaries, state unit presidents and other functionaries, Mr Naidu said the party would hold gatherings of the elite in 75 important cities to impress upon them about the BJP’s objective of development and achievement of the Vajpayee government.
This, Mr Naidu pointed out, would be followed by an intensive programme in which the party cadre would take out ‘yatras’ aimed at “reaching out to every
village, walking every street, knocking at every door and talking to every voter”.
Asking the party cadres to start the campaign “from now itself as the battle lines are clearly drawn,” Mr Naidu said work division among the office-bearers in state units, in organising Lok Sabha constituencywise conferences, constitution of state-level campaign and election committees and election assistants were among the immediate priorities.
A handbook titled “India on the Move”, containing a gist of the NDA government’s achievements, would be circulated among the party cadres, he said.
A training academy for party workers, named in the memory of former party President Kushabhau Thakre, would be set up at Bhopal, Mr Naidu added.
